I leave for Brazil tomorrow for two weeks of "signs, wonders and miracles" in Joinville and Londrina (near Sao Paulo). I am one of 80 team members going down with Gary and Kathi Oates (their website can be found at www.garyoates.com). Before I leave, here's a thought that came to me as I was memorizing Psalm 91 (at God's nudging). This thought completely rearranged my thinking about the armor of God mentioned by Paul in Ephesians 6:10-18.
Psalm 91:4b says, "His faithfulness will be your shield and rampart." That started me thinking about the "shield of faith" that Paul mentions in Ephesians 6:16 as the means by which we can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the enemy. I have always thought that this referred to my/our faith, but a quick study of the word "shield" in the Old Testament revealed that Paul was almost certainly not thinking about our faith but rather God's faithfulness. In the Old Testament, either God or one of His attributes is always the shield for God's people, not their faith. And since the Greek word in Ephesians 6:16 can just as easily be translated "faithfulness" as it can be translated "faith," and since the OT references to shield were probably foremost in Paul's mind (Paul was filled with Scripture), I am thinking that Paul had God's faithfulness--not our faith--in mind when he told us to take up the shield.
Some of you may be thinking, "Why make a big deal about this minor difference?" Let me elaborate... If my faith (or perhaps "our faith") is what shields me from the enemy, I am in deep trouble. Why do I say that? Because my/our faith seems to be fairly small potatoes compared to the infinite faithfulness of God! We are told often in Scripture that God's faithfulness reaches to the skies, is endless, etc. So...which shield would you prefer: your faith or His faithfulness? One that is limited to your earthly perception of things or one that reaches to the skies? (His favor, according to Psalm 5:12, also surrounds us as a shield--I like that one, too!).
For me this insight was huge! Instead of trusting in my ability to work up faith to fend off the enemy's attacks, I simply get to rest in God's faithfulness. My faith is therefore a response to God's infinite trustworthiness, and this shifts my emphasis from me and my very limited perspective to an infinite God with infinite knowledge, love and power. Personally, I prefer to have God between me and the devil, not my personal ability to believe or trust God. I am thinking that you will agree with that.
So...when you suit up with your armor (I recommend doing so each day), may I suggest that you try this new, much larger shield? I am quite certain you will find its protection much more to your liking.
Pray for my trip, please, for God to hugely bless the Brazilians we serve and for Him to pour out love and power through all of us. Thanks!
Stay lost in His love (or get lost in it if you haven't already!).
Tom, the least of Abba's children
Monday, June 4, 2007
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Intimacy and Mission (part 3)
Meet Thomas R. Kelly.
Thomas R. Kelly wrote a number of essays before his death in 1941 that were collected into a book entitled A Testament of Devotion. Many years ago I tried to read this book, but I was unable to understand what the author was talking about! Now, years later, as I have been drawn into a growing place of intimacy with the Lord Jesus, I am beginning to understand just a little bit of what this man wrote about so many years ago.
For most of his life, like me, Thomas Kelly was a very driven man. But in the last few years before his death at age 47, he discovered a way of life that brought amazing peace, a life of intimacy with God that he wrote about during those last years. The little collection of essays that he left behind has encouraged, inspired and changed many people. Let me introduce you to just a few thoughts from this remarkable man, yet another person who discovered that "mission" flows from intimacy.
In an essay entitled "The Simplification of Life" he says the following.
Many of the things we are doing seem so important to us. We haven't been able to say No to them, because they seemed so important. But if we center down, as the old phrase goes, and live in that holy silence which is dearer than life, and take our life program into the silent places of the heart, with complete openness, ready to do, ready to renounce according to His leading, then many of the things we are doing lose their vitality for us. I should like to testify to this, as a personal experience, graciously given. There is a re-evaluation of much that we do or try to do, which is done for us, and we know what to do and what to let alone.
Let me talk very intimately and very earnestly with you about Him who is dearer than life. Do you really want to live your lives, every moment of your lives, in His Presence? Do you long for Him, crave Him? Do you love His Presence? Does every drop of blood in your body love Him? Does every breath you draw breathe a prayer, a praise to Him? Do you sing and dance within yourselves, as you glory in His love? Have you set yourself to be his, and only his, walking every moment in holy obedience? I know I'm talking like an old-time evangelist. But I can't help that, nor dare I restrain myself and get prim and conventional. The fires of the love of God, of our love toward God, and of His love toward us, are very hot. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and soul and mind and strength." Do we really do it? Is love steadfastly directed toward God, in our minds, all day long? Do we intersperse our work with gentle prayers and praises to Him? Do we live in the steady peace of God, a peace down at the very depths of our souls, where all strain is gone and God is already victor over the world, already victor over our weaknesses? This life, this abiding, enduring peace that never fails, this serene power and unhurried conquest, inward conquest over ourselves, outward conquest over the world, is meant to be ours. It is a life that is freed from strain and anxiety and hurry, for something of the Cosmic Patience of God becomes ours. Are our lives unshakable, because we are clear down on bedrock, rooted and grounded in the love of God? This is the first and the great commandment.
Do you want to live in such an amazing divine Presence that life is transformed and transfigured and transmuted into peace and power and glory and miracle? If you do, then you can. But if you say you haven't the time to go down into the re-creating silences, I can only say to you, "Then you don't really want to, you don't yet love God above all else in the world, with all your heart and soul and mind and strength." For, except for spells of sickness in the family and when the children are small, when terrific pressure comes upon us, we can find time for what we really want to do.
There is a way of life so hidden with Christ in God that in the midst of the day's business one is inwardly lifting brief prayers, short expressions of praise, subdued whispers of adoration and a tender love to the Beyond that is within. No one need know about it. I only speak to you because it is a sacred trust, not mine but to be given to others. One can live in a well-nigh continuous state of unworded prayer, directed toward God, directed toward people and enterprises we have on our heart. There is no hurry about it all; it is a life unspeakable and full of glory, and the inner world of splendor within which we, unworthy, may live. Some of you know it and live in it; others of you may wistfully long for it; it can be yours.
Now out from such a holy center come the commissions of life. Our fellowship with God issues in world-concern. We cannot keep the love of God to ourselves. It spills over. It quickens us. It makes us see the world's needs anew. We love people and we grieve to see them blind when they might be seeing, asleep with all the world's comforts when they ought to be awake and living sacrificially, accepting the world's goods as their right when they really hold them only in temporary trust. It is because from this holy Center we re-love people, re-love our neighbors as ourselves, that we are bestirred to be means of their awakening. The deepest need of men is not food and clothing and shelter, important as they are. It is God. We have mistaken the nature of poverty, and thought it was economic poverty. No, it is poverty of soul, deprivation of God's re-creating, loving peace.
Well, that's enough for this post. Perhaps I have written enough to pique your interest in this man's writings. Note well I do not endorse everything he writes in this book--he is too generous at times in his opinion of men apart from Christ (typical for Quakers of his period). But his experience of the Presence of Jesus and his call to make intimacy with Him the center of everything, commend his works to all who wish to live life from the Center as God intended.
Grace to you,
Tom, the least of Abba's children.
Thomas R. Kelly wrote a number of essays before his death in 1941 that were collected into a book entitled A Testament of Devotion. Many years ago I tried to read this book, but I was unable to understand what the author was talking about! Now, years later, as I have been drawn into a growing place of intimacy with the Lord Jesus, I am beginning to understand just a little bit of what this man wrote about so many years ago.
For most of his life, like me, Thomas Kelly was a very driven man. But in the last few years before his death at age 47, he discovered a way of life that brought amazing peace, a life of intimacy with God that he wrote about during those last years. The little collection of essays that he left behind has encouraged, inspired and changed many people. Let me introduce you to just a few thoughts from this remarkable man, yet another person who discovered that "mission" flows from intimacy.
In an essay entitled "The Simplification of Life" he says the following.
Many of the things we are doing seem so important to us. We haven't been able to say No to them, because they seemed so important. But if we center down, as the old phrase goes, and live in that holy silence which is dearer than life, and take our life program into the silent places of the heart, with complete openness, ready to do, ready to renounce according to His leading, then many of the things we are doing lose their vitality for us. I should like to testify to this, as a personal experience, graciously given. There is a re-evaluation of much that we do or try to do, which is done for us, and we know what to do and what to let alone.
Let me talk very intimately and very earnestly with you about Him who is dearer than life. Do you really want to live your lives, every moment of your lives, in His Presence? Do you long for Him, crave Him? Do you love His Presence? Does every drop of blood in your body love Him? Does every breath you draw breathe a prayer, a praise to Him? Do you sing and dance within yourselves, as you glory in His love? Have you set yourself to be his, and only his, walking every moment in holy obedience? I know I'm talking like an old-time evangelist. But I can't help that, nor dare I restrain myself and get prim and conventional. The fires of the love of God, of our love toward God, and of His love toward us, are very hot. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and soul and mind and strength." Do we really do it? Is love steadfastly directed toward God, in our minds, all day long? Do we intersperse our work with gentle prayers and praises to Him? Do we live in the steady peace of God, a peace down at the very depths of our souls, where all strain is gone and God is already victor over the world, already victor over our weaknesses? This life, this abiding, enduring peace that never fails, this serene power and unhurried conquest, inward conquest over ourselves, outward conquest over the world, is meant to be ours. It is a life that is freed from strain and anxiety and hurry, for something of the Cosmic Patience of God becomes ours. Are our lives unshakable, because we are clear down on bedrock, rooted and grounded in the love of God? This is the first and the great commandment.
Do you want to live in such an amazing divine Presence that life is transformed and transfigured and transmuted into peace and power and glory and miracle? If you do, then you can. But if you say you haven't the time to go down into the re-creating silences, I can only say to you, "Then you don't really want to, you don't yet love God above all else in the world, with all your heart and soul and mind and strength." For, except for spells of sickness in the family and when the children are small, when terrific pressure comes upon us, we can find time for what we really want to do.
There is a way of life so hidden with Christ in God that in the midst of the day's business one is inwardly lifting brief prayers, short expressions of praise, subdued whispers of adoration and a tender love to the Beyond that is within. No one need know about it. I only speak to you because it is a sacred trust, not mine but to be given to others. One can live in a well-nigh continuous state of unworded prayer, directed toward God, directed toward people and enterprises we have on our heart. There is no hurry about it all; it is a life unspeakable and full of glory, and the inner world of splendor within which we, unworthy, may live. Some of you know it and live in it; others of you may wistfully long for it; it can be yours.
Now out from such a holy center come the commissions of life. Our fellowship with God issues in world-concern. We cannot keep the love of God to ourselves. It spills over. It quickens us. It makes us see the world's needs anew. We love people and we grieve to see them blind when they might be seeing, asleep with all the world's comforts when they ought to be awake and living sacrificially, accepting the world's goods as their right when they really hold them only in temporary trust. It is because from this holy Center we re-love people, re-love our neighbors as ourselves, that we are bestirred to be means of their awakening. The deepest need of men is not food and clothing and shelter, important as they are. It is God. We have mistaken the nature of poverty, and thought it was economic poverty. No, it is poverty of soul, deprivation of God's re-creating, loving peace.
Well, that's enough for this post. Perhaps I have written enough to pique your interest in this man's writings. Note well I do not endorse everything he writes in this book--he is too generous at times in his opinion of men apart from Christ (typical for Quakers of his period). But his experience of the Presence of Jesus and his call to make intimacy with Him the center of everything, commend his works to all who wish to live life from the Center as God intended.
Grace to you,
Tom, the least of Abba's children.
Monday, May 7, 2007
Intimacy and Mission (part 2)
The following is a continuing of the thought from my last post and also the concluding part of my longer article on this topic. You can download the entire article at my website listed in the links to the left.
It’s fairly common these days to hear the Western Church compared to the Church in Laodicea (Revelation 3:14-22). There we read of a lukewarm church whose works are neither hot nor cold. It is a church which is deceived into thinking it’s healthy because of external appearances while it is in fact living in abject spiritual poverty. I personally don’t doubt that there are many parallels between the contemporary Western church and the Laodicean church: materialism, consumerism, self-centeredness, lack of mission, etc., all jump out as we read this passage. But I have yet to hear anyone suggest the solution that Jesus suggests for the Laodiceans’ desperate condition. Usually when someone addresses the problems of the Western Church they speak of a return to being missional or a change in structure or something similar. The general thought seems to be that that if we can just change the behavior of Western believers and get them to try harder then the Church will become healthy.
There are two problems with this solution: First, it’s not the solution Jesus offers; second, because of reason number one, it won’t work!
So what solution does Jesus extend to the Laodicean believers? In a phrase: a return to intimacy. After describing the Laodicean problem in verses 15-17, Jesus counsels His people to come to Him to get true riches, clothing and healing (v. 18 His words here echo Isaiah 55:1-3), to return to Him in response to His loving rebuke (19), and to open the doors of their hearts in a return to intimate fellowship with Him (20). Interestingly, return to intimacy with Him is also the solution Jesus gives to the very “missional” and active Church in Ephesus (3:1-7)! This certifies that a mere return to mission won’t solve our problem!
It is quite plain, I trust, why we need to apply Jesus’ solution to His broken Western Church. A mere change of behavior or even a change of format (wineskin) will not cure our desperately bankrupt condition. Without a return to experienced, continuing intimacy with God, the best we can hope for is a new wineskin full of striving, discontented Christians living in uncomfortably close community with one another, trying unsuccessfully to fulfill a mission that has always required intimacy with God at its very core.
Does anyone else out there hear Jesus’ invitation? “Here I am! I stand at the door of your heart knocking, waiting for entrance into the deepest parts of your life. If you will just open the door, I will come in and we will share the deepest and richest of foods together in the most intimate of settings!” (Revelation 3:20 TW paraphrase)
Drawing closer...
Tom, the least of Abba's children
It’s fairly common these days to hear the Western Church compared to the Church in Laodicea (Revelation 3:14-22). There we read of a lukewarm church whose works are neither hot nor cold. It is a church which is deceived into thinking it’s healthy because of external appearances while it is in fact living in abject spiritual poverty. I personally don’t doubt that there are many parallels between the contemporary Western church and the Laodicean church: materialism, consumerism, self-centeredness, lack of mission, etc., all jump out as we read this passage. But I have yet to hear anyone suggest the solution that Jesus suggests for the Laodiceans’ desperate condition. Usually when someone addresses the problems of the Western Church they speak of a return to being missional or a change in structure or something similar. The general thought seems to be that that if we can just change the behavior of Western believers and get them to try harder then the Church will become healthy.
There are two problems with this solution: First, it’s not the solution Jesus offers; second, because of reason number one, it won’t work!
So what solution does Jesus extend to the Laodicean believers? In a phrase: a return to intimacy. After describing the Laodicean problem in verses 15-17, Jesus counsels His people to come to Him to get true riches, clothing and healing (v. 18 His words here echo Isaiah 55:1-3), to return to Him in response to His loving rebuke (19), and to open the doors of their hearts in a return to intimate fellowship with Him (20). Interestingly, return to intimacy with Him is also the solution Jesus gives to the very “missional” and active Church in Ephesus (3:1-7)! This certifies that a mere return to mission won’t solve our problem!
It is quite plain, I trust, why we need to apply Jesus’ solution to His broken Western Church. A mere change of behavior or even a change of format (wineskin) will not cure our desperately bankrupt condition. Without a return to experienced, continuing intimacy with God, the best we can hope for is a new wineskin full of striving, discontented Christians living in uncomfortably close community with one another, trying unsuccessfully to fulfill a mission that has always required intimacy with God at its very core.
Does anyone else out there hear Jesus’ invitation? “Here I am! I stand at the door of your heart knocking, waiting for entrance into the deepest parts of your life. If you will just open the door, I will come in and we will share the deepest and richest of foods together in the most intimate of settings!” (Revelation 3:20 TW paraphrase)
Drawing closer...
Tom, the least of Abba's children
Monday, April 23, 2007
Intimacy and Mission
The Father revealed more of His Father’s heart to me recently as I sat in His presence. He took me back to the time when my two young sons and I used to walk the rocky beaches of Whidbey Island, Washington. As I pondered those times, He reminded me of why my sons used to love those times with me: they just wanted to be with Daddy. Indeed, the more I reflected on this, the more I realized that my sons always wanted to be with Daddy because they knew that Daddy loved them and that they loved Daddy. So it was that my sons and I hung out a lot together, becoming almost inseparable as they grew up.
I think the Father healed more of my own "father wounds" as I thought about this today…I realized how His Father’s love has changed me and how it continues to invite me to just be with Him. It also reminded me of how He loves just to be with me, just as I love being with my sons.
Then my thoughts turned to the question of intimacy and mission. Just as my sons learned to be like their daddy and longed to work alongside me just to be with me and do what I was doing, so those who walk in genuine intimacy with the Father long to be with Him so much that they engage in His mission from that place of intimacy--just to be where He is, all the time!
I have always been puzzled by those who see tension or even conflict between intimacy with God and being missional for God because, although I have known those who have managed to be missional without being intimate with God, I have never known anyone who was truly intimate with God who wasn’t also missional! Nor does Scripture show us any tension between the two: David was about as “missional” as a person can be, but the Psalms pulsate with his passionate pursuit of intimacy with God. And the greatest missionary of all, the Lord Jesus, lived in perfect intimacy with His Father and did nothing apart from that intimacy. Even Paul—perhaps the second greatest missional person ever—described his life in terms of intimacy more than mission (see Philippians 3:10-11).
So how are intimacy and mission related, and why is it so important to keep intimacy as the first order of one’s life? I am in the process of writing a long article on that question, and I will post it here as an attachment when it's finished (hopefully this week). For now, I give you just the main themes. First God's mission is intimacy (i.e., intimacy with us restored). Second, intimacy with Abba precedes, births, accompanies and sustains mission (if you read John 15:1-16) carefully you will catch these points!
More soon. In the meantime, may He draw you so deeply into His love that you remain forever captured and captivated!
Tom, the least of Abba's children.
I think the Father healed more of my own "father wounds" as I thought about this today…I realized how His Father’s love has changed me and how it continues to invite me to just be with Him. It also reminded me of how He loves just to be with me, just as I love being with my sons.
Then my thoughts turned to the question of intimacy and mission. Just as my sons learned to be like their daddy and longed to work alongside me just to be with me and do what I was doing, so those who walk in genuine intimacy with the Father long to be with Him so much that they engage in His mission from that place of intimacy--just to be where He is, all the time!
I have always been puzzled by those who see tension or even conflict between intimacy with God and being missional for God because, although I have known those who have managed to be missional without being intimate with God, I have never known anyone who was truly intimate with God who wasn’t also missional! Nor does Scripture show us any tension between the two: David was about as “missional” as a person can be, but the Psalms pulsate with his passionate pursuit of intimacy with God. And the greatest missionary of all, the Lord Jesus, lived in perfect intimacy with His Father and did nothing apart from that intimacy. Even Paul—perhaps the second greatest missional person ever—described his life in terms of intimacy more than mission (see Philippians 3:10-11).
So how are intimacy and mission related, and why is it so important to keep intimacy as the first order of one’s life? I am in the process of writing a long article on that question, and I will post it here as an attachment when it's finished (hopefully this week). For now, I give you just the main themes. First God's mission is intimacy (i.e., intimacy with us restored). Second, intimacy with Abba precedes, births, accompanies and sustains mission (if you read John 15:1-16) carefully you will catch these points!
More soon. In the meantime, may He draw you so deeply into His love that you remain forever captured and captivated!
Tom, the least of Abba's children.
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Be Like Jesus (part 5)
Here's another brief thought about what it means to be like Jesus. How about we learn to have the same attitude towards money and possessions that He had? We know that He served God rather than money and taught that you cannot do both! (Matthew 6:24). We also know that He encouraged generosity (see Mark 12:41-44) and that He suggested that we choose not to worry about "things" at all! (Keep reading after Matthew 6:24!).
Someone who has done a wonderful job of addressing this issue (living it out as well as writing about it) is Randy Alcorn in his little book, The Treasure Principle. I have listed his 6 principles below for your consideration and comment. What would it look like for God's people in the US to grasp and live these out? (Answer: we would begin to be like Jesus in our attitude towards possessions instead of like our unbelieving neighbors!).
Treasure principles from Randy Alcorn.
"You can't take it with you -- but you can send it on ahead!"
Treasure Principle Keys
God owns everything. I'm his money manager.
We are the manager of the assets God has entrusted--not given--to us.
My heart always goes where I put God's money.
Watch what happens when you reallocate your money from temporal things to eternal things.
Heaven, not earth, is my home.
We are citizens of "a better country-a heavenly one" (Hebrews 11:16).
I should live not for the "dot," but for the line.
From the dot (our present life on earth) extends a line that goes on forever, which is eternity in heaven.
Giving is the only antidote to materialism.
Giving is a joyful surrender to a greater person and a greater agenda. It dethrones me and exalts Him.
God prospers me not to raise my standard of living, but to raise my standard of giving.
God gives us more money than we need so we can give -- generously.
My wife, Jettie, and I have simplified these down a little: Because we are richly blessed we choose to live with gratitude and generosity, and we choose to live in way that we never spend our resources in a way that would keep us from being generous (i.e., we never buy anything large if it would hinder our being able to give considerable funds away at some point in the future).
What about you? I welcome your thoughts or questions.
Have a generous life!
Tom, the least of Abba's children.
Someone who has done a wonderful job of addressing this issue (living it out as well as writing about it) is Randy Alcorn in his little book, The Treasure Principle. I have listed his 6 principles below for your consideration and comment. What would it look like for God's people in the US to grasp and live these out? (Answer: we would begin to be like Jesus in our attitude towards possessions instead of like our unbelieving neighbors!).
Treasure principles from Randy Alcorn.
"You can't take it with you -- but you can send it on ahead!"
Treasure Principle Keys
God owns everything. I'm his money manager.
We are the manager of the assets God has entrusted--not given--to us.
My heart always goes where I put God's money.
Watch what happens when you reallocate your money from temporal things to eternal things.
Heaven, not earth, is my home.
We are citizens of "a better country-a heavenly one" (Hebrews 11:16).
I should live not for the "dot," but for the line.
From the dot (our present life on earth) extends a line that goes on forever, which is eternity in heaven.
Giving is the only antidote to materialism.
Giving is a joyful surrender to a greater person and a greater agenda. It dethrones me and exalts Him.
God prospers me not to raise my standard of living, but to raise my standard of giving.
God gives us more money than we need so we can give -- generously.
My wife, Jettie, and I have simplified these down a little: Because we are richly blessed we choose to live with gratitude and generosity, and we choose to live in way that we never spend our resources in a way that would keep us from being generous (i.e., we never buy anything large if it would hinder our being able to give considerable funds away at some point in the future).
What about you? I welcome your thoughts or questions.
Have a generous life!
Tom, the least of Abba's children.
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Be Like Jesus (part 4)
Hmmm. It occurs to me that my posts are not really going to deal with simple church issues per se! That's because I believe that what God is doing in the earth is far more than a change of structure of even core practices or values. As I have said before, He is calling us back to Himself and to a truly vital and alive life with Him. To that end, let's continue the journey of becoming like Jesus.
Jesus was the only totally selfless human being ever to live because He was completely secure in His Father's love for Him. And He challenged any who would follow Him to first deny self even before taking up the cross and following Him. Most followers of Jesus know this, but in the past I find that I often tend to become preoccupied with self even as I try to deny self and die to self! Then one day I read the following in Bill Johnson's book, When Heaven Invades Earth (pp. 147-148). May his words set you free from self-focused self evaluation!
In my own pursuit of God, I often became preoccupied with me! It was easy to think that being constantly aware of my faults and weaknesses was humility. It's not! If I'm the main subject, talking incessantly about my weaknesses, I have entered into the most subtle form of pride. Repeated phrases such as, "I'm so unworthy," become a nauseating replacement for the declarations of the worthiness of God…
I struggled for many years with self evaluation. The main problem was that I never found anything good in me. It always lead to discouragement, which led to doubt, and eventually took me to unbelief. Somehow I had developed the notion that this was how I could become holy—by showing tremendous concern for my own motives.
It may sound strange, but I don't examine my motives anymore. That's not my job. I work hard to obey God in everything that I am and do. If I am out to lunch on a matter, it is His job to point that out to me. After many years of trying to do what only He could do, I discovered I was not the Holy Spirit. I cannot convict and deliver myself of sin. Does that mean that I never deal with impure motives? No. He has shown Himself to be very eager to point out my constant need for repentance and change. But He's the one with the spotlight, and alone can give the grace to change.
There is a major difference between the believer who is being dealt with by God, and the one who's become introspective. When God searches the heart, He finds things in us that He wants to change. He brings conviction because of His commitment to deliver us. Such a revelation brought me to pray in the following manner:
Father, you know that I don't do so well when I look inward, so I'm going to stop. I'm relying on you to point out to me the things that I need to see. I promise to stay in your Word. You said that your Word was a sword—so please use it to cut me deeply. Expose those things in me that are not pleasing to you. But in doing so, please give me the grace to forsake them. I also promise to come before you daily. Your presence is like a fire. Please burn from me those things that are unpleasing to you. Melt my heart until it becomes like the heart of Jesus. Be merciful to me in these things. I also promise to stay in fellowship with your people. You said that iron sharpens iron. I expect you to anoint the "wounds of a friend" to bring me to my senses when I'm been resistant toward you. Please use these tools to shape my life until Jesus alone is seen in me. I believe that you have given me your heart and mind. By your grace I am a new creation. I want that reality to be seen, that the name of Jesus would be held in highest honor.
Amen and amen! Becoming like Jesus means that we allow God to be God, and that we focus on Him, trusting Him to lead us and change us according to His plan and power, not ours!
Stay lost in His love,
Tom, the least of Abba's Children
In my own pursuit of God, I often became preoccupied with me! It was easy to think that being constantly aware of my faults and weaknesses was humility. It's not! If I'm the main subject, talking incessantly about my weaknesses, I have entered into the most subtle form of pride. Repeated phrases such as, "I'm so unworthy," become a nauseating replacement for the declarations of the worthiness of God…
I struggled for many years with self evaluation. The main problem was that I never found anything good in me. It always lead to discouragement, which led to doubt, and eventually took me to unbelief. Somehow I had developed the notion that this was how I could become holy—by showing tremendous concern for my own motives.
It may sound strange, but I don't examine my motives anymore. That's not my job. I work hard to obey God in everything that I am and do. If I am out to lunch on a matter, it is His job to point that out to me. After many years of trying to do what only He could do, I discovered I was not the Holy Spirit. I cannot convict and deliver myself of sin. Does that mean that I never deal with impure motives? No. He has shown Himself to be very eager to point out my constant need for repentance and change. But He's the one with the spotlight, and alone can give the grace to change.
There is a major difference between the believer who is being dealt with by God, and the one who's become introspective. When God searches the heart, He finds things in us that He wants to change. He brings conviction because of His commitment to deliver us. Such a revelation brought me to pray in the following manner:
Father, you know that I don't do so well when I look inward, so I'm going to stop. I'm relying on you to point out to me the things that I need to see. I promise to stay in your Word. You said that your Word was a sword—so please use it to cut me deeply. Expose those things in me that are not pleasing to you. But in doing so, please give me the grace to forsake them. I also promise to come before you daily. Your presence is like a fire. Please burn from me those things that are unpleasing to you. Melt my heart until it becomes like the heart of Jesus. Be merciful to me in these things. I also promise to stay in fellowship with your people. You said that iron sharpens iron. I expect you to anoint the "wounds of a friend" to bring me to my senses when I'm been resistant toward you. Please use these tools to shape my life until Jesus alone is seen in me. I believe that you have given me your heart and mind. By your grace I am a new creation. I want that reality to be seen, that the name of Jesus would be held in highest honor.
Amen and amen! Becoming like Jesus means that we allow God to be God, and that we focus on Him, trusting Him to lead us and change us according to His plan and power, not ours!
Stay lost in His love,
Tom, the least of Abba's Children
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Those Who Have Gone Before
First, is anyone reading this blog? If so, would you be so kind as to email me at tomwymore@gmail.com and let me know? I have other things to do and will post less frequently if no one is benefiting! Thanks.
In last week's post, I promised that I would break away from my current topic and post some thoughts from one of my mentors, Smith Wigglesworth. Smith Wigglesworth is one of those who like Abel, "though he is dead, still speaks" (Hebrews 11:4). Smith died in 1947, but his life and words still influence those of burning heart who know that what God is up to these days includes learning to "do what Jesus did" in terms of the supernatural. Smith Wigglesworth saw thousands of people healed and delivered from demons during his years on the earth (and even a few dead folks raised). But what attracts me to him most is that he walked in humility to the end of his days and ministered to people out of deep compassion as well as power.
It is reported that Smith Wigglesworth lived the last 30 years of his life almost continually in God's presence. Following are some quotes by him from a now out-of-print book that give us some clues as to how this was possible. (The book is entitled Smith Wigglesworth Speaks to Students of the Bible). I will let his words speak for themselves.
Regarding discerning God's voice:
So these voices, if they have taking you out of peace, you will know it is not the will of God. But if the Spirit speaks, He will bring harmony and joy, because the Spirit always brings three things: comfort, consolation and edification; and He will make you sing songs in the night... if you are wild, that is the devil. If you go breathlessly to the Bible, looking for confirmation of the voice, that is the devil. (Page 131)
When you were so undone that unless God helped you do it, you couldn't do it, when you were so broken in the spirit that your whole body seemed to be at an end unless God reinstated you… then the unction came... Jesus was so manifested that they all said "Oh, wasn't Jesus speaking to our hearts this morning!" (Page 102)
Most people fail to come into a perfect line with God because they allow their own reasoning to defeat the power that God has. (Page 88)
The difference is joy, gladness, expression; instead of sadness, sorrow and depression. You are always right to try to spirits to see whether they are of God. If you do not, then you will be sure to be caught napping. (page 128)
The Holy Spirit is shown to me that all the time he is helping me I have got to be nothing (page 76).
Tom, one of Abba's children
In last week's post, I promised that I would break away from my current topic and post some thoughts from one of my mentors, Smith Wigglesworth. Smith Wigglesworth is one of those who like Abel, "though he is dead, still speaks" (Hebrews 11:4). Smith died in 1947, but his life and words still influence those of burning heart who know that what God is up to these days includes learning to "do what Jesus did" in terms of the supernatural. Smith Wigglesworth saw thousands of people healed and delivered from demons during his years on the earth (and even a few dead folks raised). But what attracts me to him most is that he walked in humility to the end of his days and ministered to people out of deep compassion as well as power.
It is reported that Smith Wigglesworth lived the last 30 years of his life almost continually in God's presence. Following are some quotes by him from a now out-of-print book that give us some clues as to how this was possible. (The book is entitled Smith Wigglesworth Speaks to Students of the Bible). I will let his words speak for themselves.
Regarding discerning God's voice:
So these voices, if they have taking you out of peace, you will know it is not the will of God. But if the Spirit speaks, He will bring harmony and joy, because the Spirit always brings three things: comfort, consolation and edification; and He will make you sing songs in the night... if you are wild, that is the devil. If you go breathlessly to the Bible, looking for confirmation of the voice, that is the devil. (Page 131)
When you were so undone that unless God helped you do it, you couldn't do it, when you were so broken in the spirit that your whole body seemed to be at an end unless God reinstated you… then the unction came... Jesus was so manifested that they all said "Oh, wasn't Jesus speaking to our hearts this morning!" (Page 102)
Most people fail to come into a perfect line with God because they allow their own reasoning to defeat the power that God has. (Page 88)
The difference is joy, gladness, expression; instead of sadness, sorrow and depression. You are always right to try to spirits to see whether they are of God. If you do not, then you will be sure to be caught napping. (page 128)
If ever you know anything about God, it will be peace... God showed me a long time ago... but if I was disturbed in my spirit and was at unrest, I had missed the plan. (Page 129)
Regarding the type of commitment required to move in true spiritual power:
Once I thought I'd possessed the Holy Ghost, but I have come to the conclusion that he has to be entirely the possessor of me. (Page 43)
Regarding humility:
People are failing God all the time all over the world because they are eloquent and taken up with the eloquence, and God is not in it. (Page 102)
It is satanic to feel that you are different from anybody else, that God has a special message for you, and that you are someone very particular. Every place that God brings you to is a rising tide of humility, brokenness of heart, fullness of surrender, where only God can rule and authority-not when you are somebody, but where God is everything, and where you will be living for the exhibition of his glory. (Page 134)
Regarding living in a place of peace and power:
If you are not at peace something is wrong. If you are not at rest, something has taken place. God means you to be so at peace as if you were in heaven. (Page 88)
There you have it. I wanted to share these because this particular book is hard to find--this kind of man of God is hard to find!
Grace to you,Tom, one of Abba's children
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