Influenced to influence – Part I
This was taken from my sermon notes that I used in preaching at Haven of Hope on Sunday, July 12th, 2009:
I believe that God is challenging us to allow Him to influence our lives in a greater way. Then, it’s His plan for us to use that influence from Heaven to influence other people, nations, and the enemy for the glory of God and His Kingdom.
What is influence? One definition I was able to find said:
Influence occurs when an individual’s thoughts or actions are affected by other people. Social influence takes many forms and can be seen in conformity, peer pressure, obedience, leadership, persuasion, sales, and marketing.
For example, have you ever been walking through the grocery store or the mall and by the time you walk out, you are humming or singing a song? At first you think, where did I hear this from? Then you realize that the song must have been playing in the store.
When I was typing this message together, I tried to think of one of the most annoying songs I had ever heard and “Umm Bop” by the Hanson brothers immediately came to my mind. I searching online for a Youtube clip to use during my sermon as an illustration. I decided against it (but still think it would have been hilarious). However, about 10 minutes later, while I was continuing to type out my notes, to my horror I caught myself singing “Umm bop..bop..bop..umm bop”!!!! I was mortified and thankful that the house was empty. I laughed, but it illustrated my point beautifully.
As another example, have you ever hung around someone and start to pick up their catch phrases or accents?
Andy Stanley once said it this way:
Who or what you listen to will ultimately determine what you do.
Whether we intend to or not, we are influenced by the people that we spend time with, the music that we listen to, how we steward our time, etc.
Check back soon for Part 2 of this series where we will talk about how God wants to be our primary source of influence.
Can’t hide your motives
In Matthew Chapter 22 and verses 15 through 22, we find that the Pharisees are up to their old tricks. They want to try to trap Jesus into saying something that will get him arrested by the Roman authorities. So they asked Him:
Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?
In the New Living Translation (which is becoming my new favorite), it says that Jesus knew their evil motives. If you read Matthew 22:16, you will find that just prior to their question, they were trying to be MAJOR “teacher’s pets”. They said to Him:
Teacher, we know how honest you are. You teach the way of God truthfully. You are impartial and don’t play favorites.
But Jesus was able to look straight through all the “smoke & mirrors” and look right into their heart at their motives.
My challenge to you today is to be real. Be real to yourself, others, and your God. God is able to see straight through it all. By “be real”, I don’t mean that you know have license to be a pain in the butt just because you happen to be one. What I mean is to be AUTHENTIC. When you talk to God, throw out the King James speak (unless you really talk like that), and speak what is REALLY on your heart – He sees it anyways. When you talk to others, be transparent and be real. Check your motives.
It is impossible to paint God into a corner. When we pray something, He can look right down to the core root of why we are praying that way.
For example, if I were to hear you pray something like “God, I am asking for a sovereign move of your Spirit on the hearts of men and women.”, I might think “Wow, that sounds pretty cool”. But God could look into your heart and see that, what you are really saying is, “God, I am way to afraid to talk to anyone else about you. I just don’t see the point in sharing my faith with others. Please just step in and pour out your Spirit on everyone so that I don’t have to talk to them. That would make me feel better”. Ouch.
God is not nearly impressed with your words as He is impressed with what words are truly flowing from your heart (whether you are speaking them out loud or not).
Check your motives at the door and be real. Authenticity is one of the next levels God is taking His church.
Intercession in Roman History
In Roman history, intercession was a word used to describe when a tribunal or magistrate would veto legislation. A tribunal was essentially describing a person or body that upholds or defends the rights of the people.
These tribunals or magistrates would use intercession to stop motions or orders that would have adversely affected the rights of the people that they represented.
Once an intercession was given by a tribunal, the only way that the other magistrates/tribunals could nullify the intercession would be to threaten the tribunal/magistrate who issued the intercession.
We know that the enemy wants to steal, kill, and destroy us and keep the nations of the world in darkness. If we look at prayers of intercession in the context of Roman history, you and I are issuing legal decrees that stop the motions or orders of the enemy.
You and I have been commissioned to go and make disciples of the nations. If we ask, God said that He would give us the nations of the world as our inheritance. As followers of Christ, we represent the rights of the inhabitants of cities, regions, countries, and nations that, spiritually speaking, can’t defend themselves. God has commissioned you and I as His ambassadors on the earth with the legal authority to intercede on behalf of individuals, nations, situations, etc.
If the enemy issues a motion or order that our city will be held by depression, you and I as intercessors have the authority and the responsiblity to veto that order and release God’s intentions in that city.
If the enemy issues a motion or order that a particular body will be overwhelmed with pain or sickness, you and I as intercessors have the authority and responsibility to veto that order and release God’s reality into that body.
There is nothing that the enemy can legally do to us to cancel the effects of our intercession. The enemy may try to make us feel afraid and threaten us, but there is nothing he can legally do to stop us when we have interceded for something or someone. He can discourage us to try to get us to “drop” or “withdraw” our intercession, but his hands are tied.
When we intercede, we are acting as God’s legal representatives on earth to uphold and defend the rights of people and cities in need of God.
Intercession is a powerful tool that the Lord has given us to see His Kingdom brought to the earth. We get the awesome privilege to be conduits that God can flow through to veto the power of the enemy and protect the rights of people who need to accept Jesus Christ.
What are examples that you know of that prove the power of intercession? Has this article helped you realize the power that you have in Christ as an intercessor?
Spring is here!
Have you ever been blind-sided by an amazing concept found in something so simple? Have you ever walked by something (or someone) for weeks, months, or years, only to one day have an “Ah Ha!” moment and be impacted?
I went out for a brief walk at work today and I looked at one of the trees and saw that it was beginning to bud because, as the title of this post says, “Spring is here!”. I have never really taken the time to look at buds on a tree. I’m not a gardener, I’m not a botanist, I’m not a florist, and I would find a way to kill a chia-pet. But for some reason, today, God used a small little bud on a tree to speak something to me.
The first thing I noticed about the bud on the tree is that it seemed so innocent. The bud was largely undamaged. The flower or leaf inside the bud hadn’t had the chance or the opportunity to be damaged by wind or rain. It was partially protected yet partially beginning to unfold and become who it was meant to be.
The second thing that I noticed was hope. It wasn’t yet everything that it was destined to be, but to see a whole tree filled with buds spoke hope to me. Inside the bud were all the atributes of a beautiful flower or a vibrant green leaf, but you could only see part of what it was meant to become. We don’t yet see a tree full of leaves or flowers, but it’s the hope of something that will bring happiness to people, oxgen to the atmosphere, etc.
The third thing that I noticed was in some ways an application of the previous thoughts of hope and innocece: life. I immediately thought of parallels to my own life and our collective lives in Christ.
2 Corinthians 5:17 –
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away ; behold , all things are become new.
We are just like that bud. When we come to Christ, we are like that bud that I saw on the tree. We start out innocent. Much of who we are going to be and what we are going to accomplish is hidden to everyone..everyone but God. We have hope…hope that by being who God intended us to be that we can bring happiness and show Christ’s love to others. We feel full of life – new life. While we previously were calloused and hardened (much like the trunk of the tree), God made something beautiful out of our life.
As we grow and our destiny unfolds, there will be opportunities to be shaken by life..winds of adversity..trials..tribulations…rain…storms…but God knew what He was doing when He grafted you into the tree that He placed you into. He is our source of life, our source of hope, the One who holds our innocence and destiny in His hands.
Never forget the fact that the Bible doesn’t say that He will make new things, rather it says that He will make all things new. God has taken things that were previously existing (us) and made us new.
Let’s enjoy His presence and love and rest in the process that He has us in. Spring is here…this is a new season. I’m determined to bloom into what God wants me to be.
What are you still doing there?
In the first chapter of Acts, we find a hilarious event involving the disciples of Jesus and angels.
Jesus has been with the disciples for 3 1/2 years. He has been telling them of things to come:
As the Father sent me, so send I you
I am the light of the world. Now you are the light of the world.
You shall be my witnesses
3 1/2 years of intense coaching, instruction, teaching, impartation….all culminating to the Lord being raised from the dead and walking with them for 40 days.
All these events set the stage for Jesus gathering His disciples together and speaking to them about the Kingdom of God. He tried to warn them that He was leaving:
I must needs go away
After a little while, you won’t see Me. I’m going back to the Father.
I still don’t think that it sunk in. They said to themselves:
I thought we lost Him. For 3 days, we wondered if His words were true. Now He will stay with us forever.
But this was not the plan of God. He was going away so that the Comforter…the Holy Spirit…power from heaven could fall on them.
Suddenly, Jesus ascends up into heaven and they watched Him as He went higher and higher and higher. They looked until they couldn’t see Him anymore.
It was then that they got themselves in a little trouble. The Lord told them before He left:
Don’t leave Jerusalem until you receive the promise of the Father.
However, they were standing on Mount Olivet, which was a Sabbath day’s journey away from Jerusalem.
They had divine impartation, they had doctrine and solid teaching from God Himself poured into them, they saw Jesus take dominion over EVERYTHING that came His way, they had direction straight from the throne (go to Jerusalem), etc. However, they weren’t actually DOING what the Lord asked them to do.
I can picture them standing there looking in the clouds saying things like:
Won’t it be awesome when we get all that power that Jesus was talking about?!?
How cool will that be when all of Jerusalem knows who Jesus really was!?!
In the middle of these questions, two angels showed up and said:
What are you still doing here?
Could that question be applicable to you and I today? We’ve been instructed, taught, trained, indoctrinated, and counseled. We’ve gone to conference to get direction. We’ve read blogs about how to be a better minister. We’ve had phone calls with peers and mentors alike. We listen to sermons and seminars on CD’s, we watch them on DVD, and download them from the internet.
But in order to accomplish the divine mission of Jesus Christ, we must leave where we are and go where He told us to go.
What things has the Lord asked you to leave behind?
Has the Lord spoken to you or put thoughts into your mind of what ministry and calling He has planned for you?
What are you doing today to follow and pursue the Lord’s will in your life?
If two angels were to show up at your house, your job, Starbucks, or wherever you are right now, would they look you in the eye and say:
Why stand ye here gazing? What are you still doing here?
Why are we still letting fear hinder us from becoming who we are supposed to be? Why are we being held hostage by the fear of failure and the fear of other people? Why are we so complacent about being His hands and feet.
What are you still doing there? Let’s go!
The Lord He is God!
Psalm 68:9 “You shed abroad a plentiful rain O God. You confirmed your inheritance when it was parched.”
I feel that this Scripture is significant on 2 levels:
1. On one level, I’m tired of people saying that New England is dry and cold and a burned over field. The Lord will confirm our inheritance even when the land is parched.
2. On another level, I was hit with the idea that the Lord enjoys doing things contrary to our natural thinking. He sends rain down in parched areas and He sends fire down on drenched altars.
To further expand on bullet #2 above, we read in I Kings Chapter 18 about Elijah defeating the prophets of Baal. I believe that it was critical for Elijah to drench the altar with water before the fire fell down due to the significance of what it would mean to our generation specifically.
All throughout the Bible, water is a type/shadow of the Holy Spirit. We think, in our natural minds, that not getting the sacrifice wet will create a better environment for the fire to fall and consume. However, the Lord wants our sacrifice, our offering, etc. to be absolutely drenched with water (the Spirit).
Others might talk and say “Don’t you know that with all that water (Spirit) that the fire won’t come down and impact other people”. However, if we keep our pursuit towards God and His Spirit, the fire WILL come down.
It was also significant to me that Elijah didn’t just pour water over the offering and the altar but he built a trench around the altar (enough to hold 4 gallons). He didn’t just want to water to be on the sacrifice, but he wanted there to be a way that the water could be stored (i.e. entertaining the Spirit and creating environments where it can rest). Then, the fire of the Lord consumed everything, including what was in the trenches.
Through all of this, it caused the people to say” The Lord, He is the God. The Lord, He is the God”!! I believe that if we pursue God and His spirit, regardless of the manifestation, that our city and region will fall to their knees and say “The Lord is the God!”.
The Offensive and Defensive Power of Peace
I have done a study on peace lately and I was hit with the concept that peace is as much offensive as it is defensive.
Previously, I always thought that peace was purely defensive. I have always read the following verse in Philippians 4:7. that says:
Philippians 4:7: “..the peace of God that passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus”.
What I found cool was that the word for “keep” actually can mean “guard”. It’s so true that when we are not feeling peaceful, it is our hearts (seat of our emotions) and our minds (our thoughts) that are the two things that seem to come under the most attack. But the peace of God is able to guard our emotions, thoughts, etc. during times of unrest and blow our mind in the process.
Previous to this study, I had never seen peace as “offensive”. But I read Colossians 3:15 and Romans 16:20 and they painted a pretty cool picture. As God gives us peace, He then torments the things that once tormented us.
Colossian 3:15: “And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.”
Romans 16:20 “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet…”
God wants His peace to rule in our hearts and He desires to crush Satan under our feet. As He gives us His peace, He in turn takes dominion over Satan’s attacks and influences that were trying to make us fearful and rob us of peace.
Quote by Ian Paisley “The church of Jesus Christ is largely sleeping…”
The church of Jesus Christ is largely sleeping, like a great bedroom, and you have all the Christians in bed and they’re all sleeping…and they’re saying “Please, don’t wake me up! I want to sleep on! And of course when God starts to operate a revival, people cannot sleep. You can’t sleep in church when the Spirit of God awakes the people. Look at the 1st verse of this 52nd chapter..’Awake! Awake! Put on strength! Wake up! You’re sleepy Christians! Awake thou that sleepeth, Arise from the dead! Christ will give you life! ~~ Ian Paisley
“Disturb Us” by Sir Francis Drake
Disturb us, Lord, when
We are too well pleased with ourselves,
When our dreams have come true
Because we have dreamed too little,
When we arrived safely
Because we sailed too close to the shore.Disturb us, Lord, when
With the abundance of things we possess
We have lost our thirst
For the waters of life;
Having fallen in love with life,
We have ceased to dream of eternity
And in our efforts to build a new earth,
We have allowed our vision
Of the new Heaven to dim.Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,
To venture on wider seas
Where storms will show your mastery;
Where losing sight of land,
We shall find the stars.
We ask You to push back
The horizons of our hopes;
And to push into the future
In strength, courage, hope, and love~ Sir Francis Drake
His Plan For Me (Author Unknown)
When I stand at the judgement seat of Christ
And He shows His plan for me,
The plan of my life as it might have been,
Had He had His way, and I see
How I blocked Him here, and checked Him there,
And I would not yield my will,
Will there be grief in my Saviour’s eyes,
Grief though He loves me still?
Would He have me rich and I stand there poor,
Stripped of all but His grace,
While memory runs like a hunted thing,
Down the paths I cannot retrace.
Lord, of the years that are left to me,
I give them to Thy hand;
Take me and break me and mold me,
To the pattern that Thou has planned.
Part 3: The Price of Hesitancy
Do you remember what it was like to get a shot when you were a kid? I didn’t particularly enjoy it. As a matter of fact, I am not really found of them now. See below for a conversation that hasn’t occured and never will:
Co-worker: “So Matt, what do you have going on today?”
Matt: “You won’t believe it! I’m so pumped!! I get to go to a guy with cold hands, a white coat, and he is going to jam a long needle into my arm. I can’t wait!!
Co-worker: “I have a meeting to go to.”
What is something that you are hesitating about? What is something that you’ve been procrastinating about? Make the phone call, send that email, walk across the room, listen to the Lord. Close your eyes, brace yourself, and just do it! (Like this kid….)
Part 2: The Price of Hesitancy
As we continue to discuss the concept of hesitancy, please take a look at Part 1 of this series by clicking here.
It’s important to realize that hesitancy DOES have a cost. If we hesitate to follow the voice of God or do the will of God, there will always be a consequence.
Growing up, it seemed that I was “cursed” (I realize that it was a blessing now!) with mentally reviewing the potential consequences of my actions. For example:
Hmmm…if I throw food at my sister at dinner, she will get upset and cry and I may get in trouble. Then, she might throw food at me. Do I really want food on this shirt? What if my dad hears about this and he takes away my video game system? Or worse yet, he might just take away the controllers to my video game system and leave the game system with all the games in my room just to haunt me. Is that worth it to me?
Yes, I was an interesting child.
While hesitancy does have a direct impact on the lives of people that we are supposed to impact if we don’t listen to/obey God, what about the indirect impact on these people by us being hesitant in our own lives. More than just not responding to God for someone else, are we responding to God for ourselves? If we are being hesitant in pursuing God or in aligning OUR lives with His plan for us, then hesitancy will both impact us in a negative way AND will eventually trickle down and impact the people we are supposed to reach with the Gospel. If I am not praying like I should and not as in tune with hearing the voice of God, then there may be times that I might not even hear the Lord trying to talk to me to go talk to someone. So while I sit there thinking “I know that I’m not where I need to be with God, but at least it’s only affecting me”, it could STILL be affecting somebody else.
In order to stop being hesitant when it comes to things of God, there comes a moment of reckless abandonment. A moment when you realize that the cost of your inaction is greater than the cost/impact if you don’t act.
Here are some things to specifically pray for:
1. Pray that God will give you a burden for others. That your heart would break with the things that break His. Pray that this burden would turn into action in your life and in the lives of others.
2. Pray that you can re-connect with God so that you can be a vessel that He can use.
3. Sacrifice your pride and have regular moments of reckless abandonment where you obey God no matter what the cost, no matter how crazy it seems to you.
Breaking through your comfort zone will NOT feel natural at first. But once you begin to have momentum in that area, keep moving forward! Faith and breaking out of your comfort zone is a lot like exercising your muscles. The more that you do it, the more that you get more and more comfortable with being stretched and expanded beyond your comfort zone. However, when we take steps backwards, it gets harder and harder to keep the same level of stretching that you had before.
Another example is my fear of bees. I hate them. I hate those little creatures. When I see them, I try to look all tough on the outside but inside I am doing an Indian rain-dance and flailing my arms. It’s not a pretty sight. Growing up, however, my dad was not afraid of bees at all. When I was with him and He saw a bee, he would stand there flat-footed, look that bee in the eye, and SQUASH! The bee would beeeeeee history (corny, I know). After a while of watching my dad not be scared of those things, one day I decided that it was MY turn. I was going to be the next Great Bee Warrior of my city! (well….at least my street anyways) Sure enough, a bee started to come after me and I clapped my hands together in the general direction of that bee. SQUASH! I had won! Bee Warrior had arrived! From that time on, when the opportunity presented itself, I would revert back to my secret identity of Bee Warrior and take care of “bees with attitude”. Then, after a while, I stopped doing it. The longer it was since my last “bee battle”, the more I started to not be comfortable with the whole idea. Until now, back in present day, bees are not really my thing.
Let’s determine to exercise our faith and keep the momentum going! The price of being hesitant is too great to us, it’s too great to our neighbors, and it’s too great to our world who is in need of a Savior.
Hesitancy is not a fruit of the Spirit so let’s not accept it as normal?
In what way can you exercise your faith today instead of being hesitant?
If It Had Not Been For the Grace of God…
Check out this hilarious story on MSNBC: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27898395/
I would have been thrown in the slammer quite a few times!
Enjoy!
Part 1: Price of Hesitancy
I walked into a Stop N’ Shop supermarket a few years ago. I was not in a “shopping” mood (most guys are only in the mood to shop when it is for them) that particular night and I was in desperate need for some coffee! This supermarket had a Dunkin Donuts at it and I quickly made my way there to get a Medium Coconut (Light N’ Sweet) coffee. When I got to the counter, the Lord put it on my heart to talk to her about Him and invite her to church. I hesitated.
Me: “Lord, she doesn’t look like she wants you.”
God reminded me of that Scripture that says “Man looks at the outward appearance but God looks at the heart”
Still, I had too much fear to respond to what God wanted me to do and, after I paid for my coffee, I walked away feeling very guilty and I was kicking myself for not listening to God.
Over the next few years, God performed a major overhaul of my mind and my heart (and the process continues). Two or three years after the event at Dunkin Donuts, I was teaching a Bible study to a friend of mine and his girlfriend and we got on the topic of following the voice of God. I shared with them some of the very same stories that I will soon be sharing with you. It was then that I found out that my friend’s girlfriend was that same girl from Dunkin Donuts!!
My heart was filled with thankfulness at God allowing me to have another chance to share with her the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Many times, we do not get 2nd chances, so we need to allow God to transform our hearts and minds so that we can respond to Him. It will be most effective when we trust His timing.
Hesitancy is not a fruit of the Spirit so let’s reject this as being a normal part of our walk with God.
Have you ever hesitated when God was speaking to your heart?
The Price of Hesitancy (New Series)
While it is certainly not healthy to dwell on past mistakes and beat ourselves up about it, there have been times in my life when I have felt that God wanted to me to do something and I hesitated…in some cases my hesitancy turned into procastination. This eventually led to me being disobedient to what the Lord prompted me to do.
As I am transparent about the opportunities that I have missed, it is my hope that you will use this as fuel to not count “hesitancy” as one of the fruits of the Spirit. It’s not there.
Also speaking from experience, the times that I have pushed past my fears have been absolutely amazing and God has worked things out in awesome ways!
