Dreams are places to make your mistakes!

Last night I had a couple of dreams that really exposed my heart.  In one of them, I was with a group of pastors eating a meal and a policewoman came up to our table and asked if any of us would be willing to conduct a wedding ceremony for the daughter of a congressman and her girlfriend.  I answered, 'My doctrine won't permit me to do so." 


When I awoke, I was ashamed of my cowardly answer!  I could actually feel the "fear of man" in my bones as I awakened.  As I prayed about it and the way it made me feel, I began to get downloads from God on the purpose of the dream and the way He would use it to train me.

Firstly, God made it clear to me that the place to make mistakes is in my dreams.  It is often in our dreams that our hearts are revealed, our deepest fears are manifested, and the heart of God is communicated to a mind that might be resisting Him. 

Second, God gave me a download, a revelation if you would, of what I should say or how I should respond to the very difficult question of "will you do my wedding ceremony?"  I have had so many requests over my ministry, and have never had a "standard" for how to say yes or no to them.  I have considered many approaches, all based upon externals like "church membership," "how long one has been divorced," "how long have they been engaged," to "are you sleeping together'" and a host of other potentially ambiguous and non-essentials.  I have even polled other pastors as to their policies for conducting weddings, and have found the standards as far ranging as humanly possible.  I have enacted policies for non-members that require a substantial fee compared to members, as well as requiring that the couples meet with me 4 to 6 times before the wedding.  But those have not helped, nor have they been able to change the hearts of those who had come to me. 

What I believe God showed me was to ask a simple but penetrating question.  "How would my conducting your nuptials advance the Kingdom of God and promote His Glory?"  The bottom line is that I would not conduct weddings unless they do both.  While that might appear hard and callous, it belies a solid truth behind the standard that I believe God wants for His Church and His people.  It really ought to be the standard for all of our life and conduct. 

Set Apart by John Mulinde

I am reading Pastor Mulinde's book and am beginning to see the hooks that the activities, hobbies, diversions and duties have in me. He describes their "cry for attention" as being what drowns out the call of God to draw near to Him, and inasmuch as we respond to their voice instead of God's voice, we institutionalize an idol in our hearts. These patterns of behavior and their network of activity draw us away from having a heart solely for God. No, they aren't "sinful" but are still sin, because they compete with God's sole possession of our hearts.

About 10 years ago, Pastor Mulinde says God had him list the diversions, the objects of his heart's affections, and he says he was shocked to find so many. God led him to a deep and lasting repentance which has resulted in a radical change in the way God used him.

As I reflect and pray about this, I recognize the awful truth that is here. Last year, when we fasted and prayed for 21 days, I saw the competing activities set aside as I made a conscious choice to give God my heart. This radical shift lasted for probably 2 months after the fast ended, and then I began to compromise on what I would spend time on. Before long, I found myself as deeply immersed in diversions as I was before.

What to do? I have agreed to begin a fast on September 18th which includes a fast from media (which comprises the bulk of my diversions and competition to giving God my time and attention) -- but the hard part remains...how to make it last. Stay tuned!

Bee Healed

For the past 7 months, I have been in constant and withering pain from my right elbow, from a tendon that was injured while carrying firewood up the stairs in our home. We have prayed repeatedly for it, even seen a doctor who gave me a referral to an orthopedic surgeon, because of its severity. On Sunday evening, it was so painful, even Advil didn't seem to help much, so Jennifer prayed again over my elbow and arm. There was no immediate change.

On Monday, I wore my elbow brace while I worked cutting wood, and then weed-whacking the tall weeds along our stream. I was nearly done when I felt a burning pain on the inside of my elbow. I looked down and there was a double-sized BEE stinging me THROUGH the elbow brace, right above the location of my injury. I brushed him away and was astonished at the level of the pain of the sting. Later that day, the sting had a small hole in it, and was closing and scabbing over.

On Wednesday morning, my bee-sting still hurt, but not as bad. What was surprising was, that my elbow and the tendon was almost entirely pain free. No pain when I carry stuff, no pain when I bend it, and none when I straighten it. My only question was..."God, did you need to send a bee to heal me?" I heard in my spirit, "I can use mud to open a blind man's eyes, why not a bee to heal you?"

Understanding Sovereignty

Today I had prayer with a new friend, Thomas Owens. When we concluded, we talked a bit about "judgment" and how disasters are an 'example' of judgment. I have come to the place in my understanding of God that I believe that God isn't "sending judgments" against the earth for sin in the form of every earthquake, flood, famine or hurricane. My rationale for this is that God's wrath against sin was spent upon His Son, that God punished sin in His Son, and us in Him. If anything, God is not sending judgment upon an unbelieving world (yet), but rather is in a sense "judging the household of faith." (1 Peter 4:17).

Consider this scenario. There are those who claim that God "sends" sickness and disasters upon people, and they rationalize that God's absolute sovereignty requires that He has the ultimate say in whether those events happen or not. I would argue, however, that while God holds the veto power over the devil who is the author of sickness, death, disease, disaster and comes to steal, kill and destroy, God has also subordinated HIS authority to His Church, through His Son, who came to "destroy the works of the devil." In a very real way, the Church's mission is to carry on Jesus' mission of bringing the Kingdom of God to bear "on earth as it is in heaven." So when disaster, disease, death, sickness, and the other works of the devil are manifested on the earth, it is evidence of the church's failure to believe and fulfill Christ's commandment to carry the "Gospel of the Kingdom" to the uttermost parts of the earth. What does the Kingdom look like? It is anywhere the Presence and Power of God reigns. It is supposed to reign in you and me.

Famine in the Horn of Africa

One of my favorite blog writers noted that a few years ago, he heard of a crisis in Africa, and bought a plane ticket and simply "went there." He felt that the alternative, of doing nothing, was insufficient. I have to believe that he was following the Lord's leading in his heart when he did so.

Which brings me to today's news story that Kenya is opening a NEW refugee center for the starving people of Somalia that will house 150000 people. They have 4 centers that already house nearly 200,000 each. This boggles my mind. That is more than the population of Painesville, Madison, Ashtabula, and Mentor COMBINED. A sea of faces filled my mind's eye as I thought of the countless starving and hungry who would be open to hearing the Gospel.

I even checked the air-fares online.

Fires are burning

I had a dream just before awakening this morning that stirred me deeply. I have to tell the conclusion of the dream before I share the content. As the dream was ending, I was being approached by a number of young Christians who were saying, "I've never seen this happen before, have you?" To which I replied, "I have seen a match burning, and I have seen a fireplace burning, but I have never seen a house ablaze or a forest fire."

The context was a movement among Christians who were permeating their culture with the love and power of God. The dream centered around a massive community (of what looked like apartments) in which people were gathering in homes for bible study, discipleship and then reaching out to their neighbors.

I entered the dream about this time and was welcomed with hugs by people I knew from my past. There was an atmosphere of celebration and dining. Each person shared with me what they had seen God do recently, and I shared my perspective as well. Then, as we looked at the sea of people approaching us, someone said to me, "I have never seen this happen before...have you?"

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My answer seems to be the reply I would still give if asked about revival fire. I have seen a match burning...individual Christians on fire with the love of God. I have seen a fireplace burning...small groups passionately pursuing God and His purposes for this world. But I have not yet seen a house burning (church?) or a forest fire (region) on fire for Him. And I believe that this dream was a picture of us looking out and seeing the tinder of men and women ready for the fire of God. I pray that the Spirit of God in me and you be fire to this tinder!

Growing as a Disciple

I am reading a highly recommended book by 3D Ministries that deals with creating a discipling culture in a church. Of course, to develop one in a church, one must also develop it in his or her life. Today, the author spoke how we look at our journey in life. We tend to look at our journey as linear. The author suggests that it is linear with circular "detours" along the way. Most of us, myself included, avoid the detours because of the pain or growth involved in them. But those "circles" are the stuff that being a disciple is made of. He describes them as moments when the Kingdom of God "happens."

My understanding of the Kingdom really matches up with his. He is so succinct in his description though, describing it as the intrusion of the perfect eternity of the Kingdom (God's reign) intruding into my imperfect time and space. A good example is when we pray for someone and they are instantaneously healed. The perfection of heaven just invaded the earth and restored someone to health "on earth as it is in heaven." Each one of these events is one of these circles he calls a "kairos moment."

The challenging part of the "detour circles" is that they are happening all the time. They are those moments when God is speaking to us and trying to get our attention, or when God arranges our circumstances to have us minister to someone. The author describes our response as "repentance" (Metanoia in the Greek) which actually means to change our minds. Have a paradigm shift. Change our way of thinking about something to God's perspective.

I am seriously and prayerfully considering enrolling in the 3D Ministries Pastors conference which is actually a "taster conference" in December. It is free except for the cost of hotel and travel. http://www.3dministries.com/pages/page.asp?page_id=133904 This really seems to me to be one of those "detours" toward more growth personally and for the people in my care.