The Root Cause

     A lot of tragic things have happened in recent days. Mass shootings by a radical Islamist terrorist, a Christian singer murdered, a little child killed by an alligator. Each of these events is a manifestation of evil in its most brutal form. We live in a day when so many things seem to be spiraling out of control that addressing issues, multiple issues, seems to never end. What do you think is behind all of this? The healing of America and the world will never come as long as the diagnosis for what afflicts us is vague and perpetually undefined. I suggest what many may well perceive as a foolish even simplistic hypothesis: The root cause behind these things is spiritual and demonic. Why would I say something like that?

     First, recognizing the spiritual and demonic presumes a biblical world-view as the unchanging and normative reality. It views God as the Creator and Sustainer of the universe, and Satan and his minions as the rebels attempting to destroy God's handiwork. It sees people as the objects of God's love and Satan's hate. It accepts at face value Jesus' statement, "the thief (Satan) has come to steal, kill, and destroy, but I have come that you might have life and that more abundantly." It also embraces the Apostle John's pronouncement that "The Son of God has appeared that He might destroy the works of the devil."

     Second, recognizing the spiritual and demonic acknowledges their intentional activity as intelligently designed to damage, if not to destroy, the human race. This comes primarily through deception convincing people that good is evil and evil is good. It attacks on a multiplicity of fronts. Satan is an equal opportunity destroyer. If he can distort sexuality, plant greed, create addictions, cultivate pride, foster religions that are destructive to humanity, distort truth, foster racial hatred, or produce power hunger, it all works for him. The goal of his end game is to destroy people and destroy the work of God.

     So, how do we fight and defeat this demonic cancer? First, pray in opposition to what Satan is doing. Prayer is more powerful than anyone imagines. In our world, it is not that prayer has been tried and then failed, rather it has been found difficult and left untried. Let me remind you that Jesus Himself said, “Whatever you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive."

     Second, in your arena of influence, stand up and be counted. Righteousness is something that must be lived out, communicated, and defended. This is true of the home, the classroom, the market place, and the corridors of power. One of the great tragedies of our time is the silence of good people in the face of evil.

     Next, I challenge you to see the powers behind the activities. Our fight is not with people, but rather demonic forces influencing people. Recall James' words, "Submit yourselves therefore unto God, resist the devil, and he will flee." So, let's keep our focus where God instructed us to place it.

     Finally, I challenge you to simply put your trust in God and His power to change the present reality. I remind you of Proverbs which says, "Trust in The Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths."

     If the root cause of the world’s tragedies is spiritual and demonic, then we would be wise to embrace John's words cited earlier, "The Son of God appeared that He might destroy the works of the devil." Let's trust Him to do what only He can accomplish.

Grateful for the Life and Ministry of Don Miller

I first met Don Miller when I was a seminary student and he touched my life. He was a spiritual giant in my mind. I invited him to lead prayer conferences where I served as pastor on multiple occasions. He and TW Hunt were the two greatest men of prayer I have ever known. I was blessed to get to know both of them. Don faithfully prayed for me daily for over 30 years. What a gift!

This past Wednesday, Don Miller, at the age of 93, stepped into Heaven. Yesterday morning, I drove down to Fort Worth from Shawnee, Oklahoma (where Fern and I are helping to take care of our 2 year old grandson and our new born grandson) to attend Don’s funeral.

The service was simple and unique. It began with a 10 minute montage of Don's life, actually Don and Libby's life. Libby has been a wonderful partner in ministry for Don.The music was simple consisting of several classic hymns especially on prayer. The highlight of the service was each of the four children sharing their remembrances of their dad. It was justifiably heavy on family and focused on their precious memories of Don as a man of God.

Here, for me, are some bits of wisdom from the life of Don Miller for me. Don said, "When you find yourself in the darkness, simply pray, 'What now, Lord? 'Now listen for God's answer." "When you read your Bible, look for God on every page? What is God telling you about Himself?"

He often prayed, "Lord, make me humble, make me real, and make me honest."

For Don, prayer was war. It was taking back from Satan what he had stolen from God. It was the passion of Don's life to see another awakening. He wanted to see the people of our nation turn to God.

He often said that Matthew 26:41 was the greatest prayer package in the world. Moreover, he encouraged people to meditate on Matthew 26:36-46. Let this soak into the depths of your soul!

A final thought of Don's shared during his funeral was his belief that the local church is the hope of the world. Whatever God will do in the world, he will do through the local church.

These are a few of the spiritual nuggets from Don that will live with me the rest of my days. My prayer now is, "Lord, raise up more men of God like Don Miller, men mighty in prayer."

5 Assumptions of Prayer

Luke 18:1 states that Jesus taught His disciples that "at all times they ought to pray and not lose heart (give up)." In fact, the challenge is for us "to cry to Him day and night." Jesus concludes that God the Father will will bring justice quickly, then asks a salient question: "when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?" In other words, will He find His people praying and trusting, or complaining with despair?

I’d like to remind us all, myself included, of prayer's assumptions.

1. God is God of the universe. He created it and sustains it with purpose. By sending His Son to earth, God initiated His desire for reconciliation with all humanity. With reconciliation comes relationship, and with relationship comes both responsibility and privilege. Prayer is both.

2. We as humans live in a world of multiple planes. The horizontal is what we see. The vertical is what we do not see. The vertical controls the horizontal. The spiritual controls the physical and social.

3. Here is where prayer steps in. Every concern should be lifted to God in prayer. Every challenge should be a matter for prayer. If something is big enough to worry about, it is big enough to pray about. Every opportunity should be processed through prayer. Every hurt and insecurity and perceived injustice should be taken to The Lord. Every problem, decision, and plan should be laid before The Lord. That is how God designed us to live.

4. We were created to live in harmony with God's will. How can we do His will if we do not know it? Should we not go to Him and ask what it is that He wants? Yes, much of His will is found in His Word. But, the specifics of our lives on a day by day basis depend on our asking.

5. Prayer, intense focused prayer, can change the direction and trajectory of our lives personally, corporately, our families, churches, communities, and even society as a whole. There is no issue that God is unable or unwilling to resolve. But He waits for us to ask. We should pray and not give up. We should pray day and night. We should be a people who are known for our faith and for our prayers!

Time to Move 2

                                     

Last week I wrote a response blog to John Barner's "When Is It Time to Look for Another Place of Ministry?"  I would like to continue my thoughts on that specific question. First, I want to share seven truths about God’s heart regarding ministry transitions and then I want to share four steps to knowing it is time to move.

7 Truths about God’s Heart

1.    God blesses faithfulness. Scripture teaches that the person who is faithful in that which is least will be made ruler over much. When a servant is diligent, disciplined, and determined, one should not be surprised that God honors that servant with greater responsibility.

2.    God always prepares us before He uses us. So, the question might be, how has God prepared you for your next assignment? What new work has He done in you? What new challenge has He taken you through?

3.    God takes us or calls us somewhere as a general principle. Only rarely does He simply takes us away from an existing set of uncomfortable circumstances. Yet on occasion, He does just that.

4.    God uses the usable servant. The question we must ask ourselves is "am I usable?" Is there anything in me that is prohibiting the Lord from using me, or you? Is there anything in us that The Lord is waiting on us to correct?

5.    Sometimes, God puts us into what appears to be a holding pattern because He is intentionally freeing us up to do something else which by hindsight is of great if not monumental importance. I think of Jonathan Edwards' termination at Northampton after serving the church for 24 years. In what appeared to be his exile to Stockbridge, he wrote some of his greatest works. He had time to think and write--something he could not have done had his unfortunate circumstances not transpired.

6.    If we will be faithful, God will be responsible to get us where He wants us. It is of great importance for us to be patient and to keep our eyes focused on God in whose hands our lives reside.

7.    Finally, pragmatically, we must ask ourselves the question, "Did I complete the assignment God gave me when I accepted my last responsibility? If not, why do we think that God will let us leave? Ought we not complete what we start? Now that does assume cooperation on the part of those God called us to lead.

How do you know God wants you to move?

1.    The first indicator that God wants you to move is that He places a restlessness in your Spirit that He is going do something new in you and through you.

2.    Next, when you have a peace that you are supposed to be somewhere else and the door opens, you can assume that God is orchestrating the unfolding events. Sometimes, however, He tests you to see if you are willing to go and it is not His will that you go. Recall Abraham's offering of Isaac. The issue was the heart and the willingness.

3.    When the church or ministry, for whatever reason, chooses not to follow your leadership, you do not need to stay. That from my perspective is an exercise in futility.

4.    Finally, you need to move on when your staying does more harm than good.

Remember this, you only have so many days of your life to invest in ministry. Do not waste what God has allotted to you. Remember Psalm 90:12. At the same time, do not leave until God tells you to go. How do you know? There is an overwhelming sense of peace that "this is the right thing to do." Caution, you may not emotionally want to go...or stay...still, the key is "peace" about what is "right." Recall Philippians 4:6-7. Trust God with all your heart and He will guide you!

How to Handle Hurts in the Church

Fern and I recently got the pleasure of hearing one of my heroes, Jim Henry, speak at the Mega Metro Pastor’s Conference. He talked to us about how to handle hurts in the ministry. 

He began by sharing some of the painful experiences he had in the ministry. If you are in the ministry very long issues will arise and people will take a cheap shot at you. It comes with the territory. It is just a matter of time. So the issue is not if but when these things occur, how do you respond? Jim's notes apply not only to those in leadership but also to anyone who may experience hurt by others in the church.

1. Face reality. Painful situations hurt. To pretend they do not simply compounds the problem.

2. Pray the Word of God. This is specially a time to stand upon and claim the promises of God. He shared that this one discipline got them through many times.

3. Do not respond too quickly when you are hurt. Sometimes a knee-jerk reaction or a word spoken too soon simply compounds the problem. Make sure you are prayed up and prayed through before you respond to anything. 

4. Remember that it is better to confront an issue than to brush it under the rug. Too often failing to address an issue simply gives it time to get worse. 

5. Try to be noble and respond with grace as best you can. How would Jesus respond in this situation is a good question to ask.

6. Get alone with God and seek his mind and assessment of the situation and how you should respond. Crises and difficult times, unfair accusations and attacks of the enemy never catch the Lord off guard. Remember this, when there is a situation and the church knows about it, you cannot hide. These things almost never go away on their own.

7. Seek wise counsel. There are godly people whom God will bring into your life who will help give you honest feedback and an objective assessment.

8. Compartmentalize. There are times when you simply have to put these things down and take care of other business. If you do not compartmentalize, it can lead to a paralysis of action. By compartmentalizing, I mean, just shut part of that world out for a time. 

9. Remember that people are watching you. By your actions and reactions, you are giving them a life lesson.

10. Understand that a crisis will often make you as a shepherd-leader. What someone meant for evil, God will have meant for good to prepare you for the next leg of your journey.

Let me add a few things that I, too, have learned from difficult situations.

First, no matter what happens, forgive. Do not hold a hurt done to you over someone's head. You can forgive without forgetting. Forgiving is a choice. A heart unwilling to forgive is a heart unable to receive the life-sustaining grace of God.

Second, refuse to be preoccupied with the past. Be grateful for what God is doing now and look forward with anticipation to what He will do in the days ahead.

Third, understand that no matter what happens to you, God either permitted the circumstances, or He will override the circumstances. At times, He caused the circumstances to prepare you for your next assignment in life. Do you think Moses ever fretted during his 39th year in the wilderness or if he had any idea that God was preparing him for his greatest assignment?

Finally, never forget, our lives with all the twists and turns, are in God's hands. He is God and we are not. He is ultimately the one who rights all wrongs and it is sufficient to leave these things in His hands.

At some point you will be hurt by someone in the church. How will you respond? 

The Key to Effective Prayer

One of the most intriguing and inspiring classes I took in seminary was "Spiritual Awakenings" taught by Roy Fish. Several years later I had the privilege of teaching that same subject at Southwestern Seminary. As a follow-up to my keen interest, I (along with my wife, Fern) twice attended one-week intensive classes on Spiritual Awakenings at Regents Park College, Oxford University hosted by J. Edwin Orr. Orr, at the time, was considered the world's leading authority on the subject. One lesson I learned through this study has always stuck with me.

I hear and read friends say over and over, "pray for revival,” "pray for an awakening,” or "pray that God will intervene." It seems to me that these are general prayers and as a rule, general prayers are ineffectual prayers. 

How we can better focus our prayers? Let us trust the scripture in Philippians 4:6: "Be anxious for nothing; but in everything (greek word 'panti' meaning 'every single issue or item; all, any, every') with prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God..."

We in the church are alarmed by the spiritual condition of family members, friends, co-workers, folks in our neighborhoods, our communities, the media, the sports arena, the business world, the entertainment industry, the academic world and the political world, not to mention the international scene. We are alarmed at the ungodliness that runs rampant, the shifting mores, the prominence of behaviors, attitudes, and  distorted values that the Bible clearly denounces as manifestations of sin.

I’m reminded of Jesus’ question: "What do you want Me to do for you?" (Matthew 20:32, Mark 10:36,51-52, and Luke 18:14) What do you want God to do for you? Would you answer that question in your prayers? Tell the Lord what it is that you want to see happen!

When you pray, I encourage you to pray in specifics. Instead of "Lord, send revival," pray, "Lord, would you open the eyes of our President to see that homosexual marriage is wrong?" "Lord, help the Supreme Court to see that homosexual marriage is detrimental to the nation." "God, intervene in the life of President Obama, Vice-President Biden, Speaker Boehner, and Chief Justice John Roberts." "Lord, in Hollywood, raise up believers who will challenge the hedonistic norms." "Lord, at Harvard, Yale and Princeton, raise up professors who have both brilliant minds and biblical convictions." "Lord, in my church, I pray that you will open our eyes to see the lost all around us." "Lord, I pray that you would place a hedge of protection around my Pastor and make him holy. Keep him from the destructive temptation of the evil one." "Lord, you know my family's needs. Please provide for us and open the right door for employment."

Each of these is an example of "specific" praying. If you will be more specific in your praying, I believe God will be more specific in His answers. Please, let's redirect our prayers to be more specific. I am convinced that if we pray specifically, God will answer specifically!