Skilled Artisans

So you shall speak to all who are gifted artisans, whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom, that they may make Aaron’s garments, to consecrate him, that he may minister to Me as priest. Exodus 28:3

God was building a tangible representation of himself on earth. While it didn’t nearly come close to who He really is, by worldly standards it was pretty impressive. Only the best of everything was used. Not just artisans, but gifted artisans were asked to contribute. Notice it says “gifted” immediately followed by the indication that they were “filled with the spirit of wisdom”. I don’t think this was spiritual wisdom but wisdom to be gifted and skilled. Their contributions were considered sacred and were the reason Aaron didn’t die when he entered God’s presence. It is safe to guess they weren’t passive, lackadaisical, or unprepared. Every hem was straight, every piece of metal was pure. Every technique mastered, every hour of practice and skills learned were used and put into that one job.

As musicians, we are gifted artisans who have been filled with the spirit of wisdom to be the best we can be. In us is the ability to go deeper and farther, not just spiritually, but musically as well. So often as musicians we reach a point and then are content to stay there. We define ourselves by who we are and not who we are becoming. We settle for mediocrity and half-hearted comfortableness.

If old wine skins cannot hold new wine, than neither can old guitar strings, the same keyboard or guitar patches, cheap instruments, or the same passive ways of playing a song. We should be challenged, disciplined, innovative, and creative. We should stretch ourselves, strive to be more skillful than we were before, and bring God our best.

Success

Busyness has become a sign of success. You are applauded for the more things you have to do and the less time you have to spend with people. The more unavailable you are, the more successful people assume you must be. This is true in the church as well.

But people are afraid to stop and listen to the silence for fear of what they will find.

I was recently reading one of Henri Nouwens thoughts on busyness and he said this:

Action can help to claim and celebrate our true self. But here again we need discipline, because the world in which we live says do this, do that, go here, go there. Busyness has become a sign of importance. Having much to do and many places to go and countless people to meet gives us status or even fame. However, being busy can lead us away from our true vocation and prevent us from drinking our cup…drinking our cup involves carefully choosing those actions that lead us closer to the complete emptying of it so that at the end of our lives we can say with Jesus “It is fulfilled”. Actions that lead to overwork, exhaustion, and burnout can’t praise and glorify God. What God calls us to do we can do and do well. When we listen in silence to God’s voice and speak with our friends in trust, we will know what we are called to do and we will do it with a grateful heart.”

When one gives up working-and I mean actual physical projects-and sits in silence, the true inner creatures of the deep emerge and one realizes just how wretched and inadequate they are. To acknowledge this, then allow and accept that there is a love covers it, is the eye of the needle the camel is trying to get through. Once on the other side of the doorway however, it is impossible to return the other direction. The old lies and struggles and thought patterns are just a distant memory and there’s nothing that can be brought to him(or her) in thought or deed that can sway or distract from this infinite, perfect love. The person with this revelation is untouchable by earthly or spiritual darkness. He becomes part of the eternal and has made himself a hidden stairway, allowing heaven to invade earth whenever the Spirit sees fit. He walks and Jesus walked and sees as He saw. One that attains this virtue is able to commune with the Father and Spirit as Jesus did-simple and yielded. Such a person can truly move mountains or instantly change a situation with simply a word.

Successful? I think so.

Looking For One

When Our Words Become Spirit

A continuation from yesterday's post:

So we must touch God in private and take that out and give it away. Jesus never prayer for the sick-because he prayer all night b4 the meeting stated. So that when he met the leper or the blind man he was ready. These go out by prayer and fasting. Didn’t pray and fast for a particular breakthrough, Jesus prayed and fasted into a lifestyle.

There’s a difference between the gospel of salvation and the gospel of the kingdom. the gospel of salvation is a part of the gospel of the kingdom, but the gospel of salvation is focused on getting people to Him. The gospel of the kingdom is focused on bringing heaven to earth. One is my destiny, the other is my assignment. I can’t afford to confuse my destiny with my assignment. I’m going to heaven my responsibility is to bring heaven. The gospel of the kingdom makes that reality present. How so? Jesus said my words to you are spirit and they are life. When I talk to you my words become spirit.

Jesus is the word of God made flesh, and now when he talks his words become spirit. That’s why when he talked there was an atmospheric shift over every crowd he talked to-because the spirit himself was released into the air. When the spirit of God is released over a crowd it changes their possibilities and their points of reasoning. People who have no hunger for God suddenly have hunger. When the spirit of God comes it clears the air of all the wrong influence and gives people a clear shot at truth. That’s why it’s vital that we learn the presence of the spirit of God and recognize what He saying and doing. When you say what He says and are doing what He’s doing then your words become spirit.

I want my words to be Spirit and Life. When I speak, I want things to change-in the physical and spiritual.

Not because I want to feel important or fulfill my fleshly ego, but because it is my destiny to walk as Jesus walked, and speak as He spoke. It is my birthright and the blessing of my Father, inherited through Jesus.

The Father didn't send Jesus, and Jesus didn't go through all He did, so I can play church. The Father did it so that I might parter with Him in bringing the glory of His Son Jesus to earth, in a real and tangible way. Jesus did it that He might restore us as joint heirs to the Father.

To want anything less, or say it is not possible, is irresponsible and makes light of what Jesus did.

Access to a Greater Faith

I've been posting a lot of Bill Johnson lately, but I've been listening to this one sermon he preached last year and there's just so much truth and life in it.

Here's another excerpt from that sermon:

One of our greatest responsibilities is to carry the nature of God into society. They need to know how good He is. When did Jesus ever bless a storm? How many times was He in a life threatening situation and say go over to that city, wipe them out and teach them how to pray and then they will become more like me. When did Jesus ever used calamity to bring about a righteous end? Everything every idea He got from the Father. It’s not a divided house, Jesus the merciful one and the Father the angry one.

Those who preach that God is an angry father do so in direct proportion of their inability to demonstrate his power. Because we attempt to compensate for what is missing. It’s much easier as a preacher to blame you for not having faith and preach harshly to you and try to compensate for what is missing in my own life. To know truth is different than living truth.

You can read a book get information and spout it and inspire them, but you can’t transform them. The truth wasn’t processed through your experience. But when truth becomes flesh in you then when you talk you are giving away who you’ve become and you break off the bread of your life that makes possible the participates to experience transforming power because they experience truth that was made flesh.

It’s easy to blame people when you minster to them and stuff doesn’t happen. While faith is an issue, have you ever noticed that those people Jesus corrected them b/c they had little or no faith, he still provided the miracle. Ones that believe, one that says if you’re willing, if you’re able. He healed the son. Why? To give him access to the greater faith.

Jesus bless us with revelation, vision, and experience, that we would have access to the greater faith.

Grace and Perfection

So what does one do when one is having a private internal life moment? They post it on a blog for strangers to read and comment. What an interesting world it has become.

So I'm going to do just that.

I’m at a point where I don’t know what to do with the paradigm of grace vs condemnation and perfection vs never being perfect. I spend lots of time on this subject-reading, thinking, studying, attempting to live, but I don’t know how to get grace to “activate” on a consistent basis. In one way it’s very exciting and encouraging, but in another I’m weary of dealing with the internal conflict of it all. I just wish I could accept grace and be done. I feel like I have all the pieces of the puzzle except one.

I think the hardest thing to accept isn’t grace. It’s the knowing that no matter what I’m going to screw it up again. The “yes” in my heart can’t bear to know that no matter what, I’m not ever going to be perfect on this side. How do you reconcile that? It’s a feeling of extreme hopelessness-yet there are people walking in it with confidence, power, and authority.

So if everyone is int he same mental boat, why do some get the concept and are able to maintain in the place of moving forward, while others don’t(or seem not to be whether to themselves, or in the view of others, or both)?

Is it wrong to want to please God?

I’m going to try and explain something, but I don’t know if I can, but here it goes:

1 God made people with a free will.
2 The only thing God doesn’t have and desires is a person who will love Him out of free will.
3 God’s first people, Adam and Eve screwed up-yet they still tried to please Him. In spite of themselves, I think it made God happy that they would try even though He knew it wasn’t good enough.
4 Since God knew this, the cross was designed, even before this all took place. So He joyfully steps in and says -“I appreciate the good try, but I can’t deal with sin, so because I love you, I’ve made a way.”
5 We realize that He has made a way and are grateful and pour out our love-or rather our twisted version of it, but still I think
-6 He delights in our attempts because He’s sees the motivation of the heart and takes pleasure in it even though it’s not the desired outcome. So He does delight in our imperfection.

Getting the the revelation that God enjoys us this side of eternity was a project in itself, but I'm confident in that(mostly). Some would say # 6 is the answer to the question. But of course we’re not done:

Think of children on mother’s day-the thought is nice, but the kitchen ends up worse off than when they started. Mom knows they don’t have the experience or skills to pull it off, and it does make more work for her in the end but, she is so pleased and glad at the heart and motivation. That her children would want to bless her makes her in turn want to bless her children. What a beautiful picture.

But again, there's the other side. If now at 30, I did the same thing, I think mom wouldn’t be too amused. At this age, I have experience and knowledge. I’ve been shown and been given guidelines so to speak of how to operate a kitchen. Do I get it right all the time? No, but there is a process that has taken place whereby teaching and instruction have lead to progress.

To not have a desire for progress is laziness and sinful. So while I’m aware that I will never be perfect, I believe there should be progress however imperfect it is.

So there is a desire for greatness. If there were not, we would all be on the same level, and there wouldn’t be levels of blessing, gifting, responsibility, ministry etc.

We’re back to those that are able to maintain and those that aren’t. There are people who really seem to understand and are content with the conflict of being perfect yet not being condemned about it. Those same people who don’t seem fall to the little foxes day after day-or if they do it doesn’t’ bother them. It’s not a wishy-washy grace covers all either. It’s definite revelation and confidence in who they are and what has been done. These are the people who seem to move on to the deeper things. This brings them closer and leads to more happiness. The closer we are the more we are changed to be like Him. So closer to God=more happiness.

Since I can’t seem to reconcile myself to this paradigm, I feel like I am stuck in the same old things-over and over, day after day. There just doesn’t seem to be any progress. I lack encounter and I lack revelation. I can’t remember the last time I really felt Him and just enjoyed Him for Him.

So after writing all that, I suppose I’m making it about how I feel rather than how He feels. But I still don’t know how to not “feel”-. And I still lack encounter. It’s said that emotions make great servants but horrible masters. Perhaps it’s a case of masters disguised as servants, perhaps not.

I'm not nearly as despondent as this post makes me feel. I'm not in a bad place, but I'm not satified with my current status either.

The Nature of a Message Determines the Outcome

Recently heard:

If Jesus were to have preached most of the sermons that were preached this weekend all across the country he never would have been crucified. The gospel of the kingdom message takes incredible courage. How about getting a message that requires so much courage on our part that God is drawn into a situation to say “amen” to the very words that were spoken. That’s what is means when he said these signs will follow those who believe. God confirming the spoken word with signs and wonders.

I don't know think I know what that kind of word looks like, but I definitely know what it isn't and I can say that I have yet to hear or see a word like this released.

What if a group of people pressed in for this kind of word? I think wildly incredible things would happen.