I’m sure some of you have heard me say this confounding conclusion about education after having spent a lifetime in education. Here it comes: Education has little to do with knowing Christ and having the power of the Holy Spirit in your life.
We love our education. The familiar idiom: Education is power. And that saying does, by and large, prove true in our culture. Do you want to be a doctor? Brace yourself for an onslaught of education.
But what about knowing God? You don’t have to look far to see some of the majestic saints we reverence to realize that education is not the secret sauce to knowing God. · D.L. Moody had a 5th-grade education. · Billy Sunday was a high school dropout. · Charles Spurgeon attended one year of high school. · Rees Howell dropped out of school at age twelve. · Harriet Tubman was illiterate her entire life. · A.W. Tozer had no formal education past elementary school. · Smith Wigglesworth was illiterate and never attended school. Later in life, his wife taught him to read, and he only read one book for the rest of his life, the Bible.
This list could go on and on. I’m sure you get the point. Our religious age confuses information, education, and knowledge with knowing. The difference is astronomical. The difference is knowing about God or knowing God. There is knowledge, and there is knowing. When people are full of knowledge about God, they can be very dangerous. More and more knowledge puts the recipient in treacherous territory; 1 Corinthians 8:1 says, “Knowledge puffs up.” Paul probably had more knowledge about God than 99 percent of the Jews of his time, and he was a very dangerous man.
He went on to say at a later time, “And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” (Eph. 3:17b–19)
There is a journey we must all make, from knowledge to knowing. If we continually pump ourselves full of more knowledge without the time to wait on the Lord to allow it to do its work in our lives, we can become spiritually bloated and constipated. The journey from knowledge to knowing makes all the difference in the world. The secret to progress from knowledge to knowing comes in the prayer just prior to the one above: “I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith” (Eph. 3:16–17a). There is only one secret sauce; it is the Holy Spirit.
Why do so many young Christians fall away?“Many new converts remain weak, many falling into sin and many backslide entirely. Many stand alone, surrounded by temptation. Many have no teaching on the Spirit in them and the power of God to establish them.They do not know the promise of the Scripture: “It is God who gives us, along you, the ability to stand firm in Christ…He has identified us as his own by placing the Holy Spirit in our hearts…” (2 Cor. 1:21-22). Pray for the power of the Holy Spirit in the Church and that every young Christian may know the fullness of the Spirit.”Andrew MurrayAs an addendum: We teach little today on the fullness of the Spirit, the gifts of the Spirit, and speaking in tongues. Let’s be frank; the world mocks these things, and we Christians have a distaste for being made fun of by the world. I know no greater need in the Church today (next to a baptism of Christ’s love) than the fullness and power of the Holy Spirit. The first work of the Spirit in the world is the conviction of sin. God is Spirit, and we cannot take hold of Him except by the Spirit. There are sufficient ministers and ministries in the Church today, that if they were covered with the power of the Holy Spirit, there would be a mighty move of God such as the world has never seen. When you remove the Holy Spirit from the spiritual life you are left with religion: a bland, pitiful, powerless dummy of the real. Tim Cameron #HolySpirit #Religion #Christianity #speakingintongues #spiritualgifts
Now that I’ve got your attention, are you trying to decide which
camp I am in. Are you in a camp? That word, woke, sure has people
running fast to defend their tribe, right? The bristles are bristling, and the
hackles are hackling when it is spoken or written about.
I’ll confess: I’m in the “awake” camp. Whoa, partner, not so fast;
don’t fold that laptop, delete this post, or pigeonhole me in some all-inclusive
stereotype. Give me a chance.
To begin, let’s get awake about the word woke. It is
not a sarcastic, negative word. And it is not a relatively new word. It has
been around since the early 1930’s in African American Vernacular English. The woke term showed up in the mid-20th
century and post-millennium by a small group of Afro-American singers. The phrase stay woke was coined by these
few entertainers in the 30’s and referred to an awareness of social and
political issues affecting Afro-Americans.
It was early in the 2010s that woke began to
encompass a broader awareness of social inequalities such as racial justice,
denial of LGBT rights, and sexism. More recently, it has been used by the
American Left, involving identity politics, social justice, white privilege,
and reparations for slavery in the U.S. In the mid-2010’s, woke began to be
used by white people to signal their support for the Black Lives Movement. By
2020, the term had become a sarcastic word of contempt among political rights
and centrists.
As followers of Jesus, we are citizens of another realm, The
Kingdom of Heaven. “Consequently,
you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with
God’s people and also members of his household, 20 built on
the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus
himself as the chief cornerstone” (Eph. 2:19-21, NIV). Or try on, “But
our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from
there, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Phil. 3:20, NIV).
Our loyalty, identity, and focus
should be on His Kingdom in our midst and what is to come. We should live with
one identity, Christians, with no prefixes.
There are great issues at hand in our
nation. There are significant inequalities and injustices, and sin abounds. What
is the solution to our desperate needs?
The gospel of the Kingdom is the
issue at hand. It is the vital, head-on, and total answer to our needs. The
foundations of our nation are being rattled as never before in our short
history. The Kingdom of Heaven must be among you. It must be allowed to break
into your relationships and remake you.
The Kingdom of Heaven is God’s order
in a society with no order. And while the nature of the Kingdom is social, it
is entered only by a personal encounter with Jesus and new birth. The character
of the Kingdom is the character of Jesus. Full stop.
“the people living in darkness
have
seen a great light;
on those living in the land of the shadow of death
a
light has dawned.”[a]
17 From
that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent,
for the kingdom of heaven has come near” (Matt. 4:16-17, NIV).
I
have become awakened to the plight of Afro-Americans, women, and so many other
groups that have suffered abuse, prejudice, and marginalization. I am
apologetic that this is their reality. Every single person has the same worth
in the eyes of Christ. The ground is level at the foot of the cross.
But to all of us, I would give one simple, childlike response: it is time to Awaken to the Kingdom of God in our midst.
I was in the front row where I fellowship, and I saw an angel. “The Holy Spirit is refreshing your life, and you are to be an ambassador for Christ!” she said. I fell to the ground facedown and wept as she spoke.
I remember wishing everyone could hear her. It occurred to me that the worship team couldn’t see the angel’s face because she was in front of them, but then I realized she faced in all directions. The angel wasn’t just speaking to me, but to each person individually. “Elders,” she continued, “come up and pray for all to receive a fresh anointing from the Holy Spirit and be ambassadors of the Lord and to speak in tongues.” As I looked back at the believers, most of them were on their faces weeping in awe of what was taking place.
I awoke from that vision in the night, and tears were running down my face. One of the most important things we can do is to discern what God is doing today in our land. Don’t be stuck in the past, trying to redo—over and over again—what God is finished doing. We have too many vivid examples across our spiritual landscape of people and churches trapped in yesterday’s anointing. One of the major themes of a recent year was transition. I believe a keyword God is speaking for us is this: The Holy Spirit is bringing a fresh anointing for His sons and daughters to be ambassadors. This anointing is for anyone who will reach out and grab it. This anointing is for anyone who will make being an ambassador for Christ a priority in life. Let me remind you that by being baptized in the name of the Holy Spirit, we are baptized to be His ambassadors.
The dictionary defines an ambassador as “the highest-ranking person who represents his or her government while living in another country”. This definition is the perfect description of who we are as Christ-followers. We are priests (the highest-ranking people), representing God’s Kingdom (His government), while we live in another country (the world, Phil. 3:20).
As I meditated on this vision, God made it clear to me that there are two keys to receiving this fresh anointing to be the proclaimers of His Kingdom on the earth this coming year—and years to come. We must be humble and repentant. Humility is the bedrock of Christlikeness. And humility is so closely linked with living in repentance—the genuinely joy-filled life. Humility frees us to seek a life that denies self and gives up the pursuit of honor from people. It empowers us to find approval from God alone. Christianity, typified by humility, will overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil.
Christ-like humility destroys pride. Pride is the root of all lack of love. Any time we recognize indifference in our life to the feelings of others, any time we become aware of the judgments of others springing up in daily living, pride is the culprit.
Repentance is the pathway to see God (Heb. 12:14). It is God’s strategy for us to be overcomers. It is the mercy and goodness of God that we recognize sin and repent. Once we taste the cleansing and freedom that flows from repentance, we will thirst for it every day. Now is the time to receive this fresh anointing to be Christ’s ambassadors.
One pointed aspect of being His ambassador is the readiness to share your faith with non-believers and lead them to saving faith in Christ. The fruit of a righteous and wise life is to bring broken people into the Kingdom of God, where they will find God’s perfect design (Prov. 11:30). It has only been in the past few years that I have made it a habit to share my faith as the Holy Spirit leads. It is a majestic and addictive feeling to guide a broken sinner to the experience of salvation.
As I reflect on the “why” I didn’t do this for over forty years of following Christ, I come to two answers.
1) Though I know better, I was stuck in “yesterday’s” thought—that it is the evangelist’s job to reach the lost. Not only is that yesterday’s thinking, but it is also a lie. Every one of us is called to be God’s witness. We are all called to make disciples. I am apologetic if that offends you. But the Gospel of Jesus is just that, often offensive. This gospel disrupts our comfortable life and familiar patterns. Can you make room in your life to be interrupted by the Holy Spirit?
2) I didn’t feel equipped. With all my discipleship experiences, teachings, the study of the Word, prayer, and Christian fellowship, I still didn’t have the confidence to share my faith. Then, I discovered the one minute and fifty seconds gospel presentation of “The 3 Circles: Sharing the Gospel”. I know you may be experiencing everything from skepticism to laughter at this conclusion, but is the truth. I memorized—almost word for word—this little gospel presentation. The Holy Spirit empowered me. The Three Circles isn’t perfect, but it placed in my life an efficient, powerful tool to work with and share my faith. And then my church taught all of us how to give our thirty-second testimony. I had no excuses.
There is no better time in your life than right now to receive a fresh anointing from the Holy Spirit to be God’s ambassador. You can stop, pray, and receive from the Spirit of God. Don’t miss what God is doing today.
The Forty-Day Word FastHere’s one sure way to attack negativity in your life—fast, negative words. Pope Francis put it this way a few years back when he made suggestions for fasting during Lent. He said—1st on my list–“Fast from hurting words and say kind words.”End the year with a forty-day word fast from complaining, sarcasm, judgments, gossip, and criticism.
Our current view of the prophetic is that it exists to bless
others and titillate spiritual emotions. Calling out someone’s address,
friend’s name or upcoming trips takes precedence over a warning or correction.
However, looking closely at the New Testament’s prophetic, it exists almost
exclusively to direct, instruct, and correct believers. Remember those three
things next time you start reading Acts. Those are the things I’ve been told my
whole life not to do with the prophetic.
Throughout the Old Testament, God used prophets to warn the people
of their actions and the results. There was hardly a more thankless or
dangerous job than the prophet. It is often met with very unceremonious ends.
Remember Jesus’s rebuke of the Pharisees in Luke 11:47? “Woe to you
because you build tombs for the prophets, and it was your ancestors who killed
them.”
The Old Testament prophets were not the most famous people in
town. Jews didn’t flock to hear what they had to say. They often brought very
“hard truths” for the people to attend. The prophets brought warnings
for people to listen to and repent.
In the New Testament, two recognizable shifts occur in the
prophetic. There are still directions, corrections, and instructions, but they
seem almost exclusively to occur within the community context. The prophets are
now a part of a local body of believers. They are not influential figures,
looked upon by others, often in a fearful sense. From Ananias to Lucius, the
prophets were brethren in the church, known by others. But more startling to
the prophetic itself is the shift that the local community should judge the
prophetic (1 Cor. 14:29, 1 John 4:1, 2 Tim. 3:16-17, 1 Cor. 6:2-3, and 1 Cor.
14:4). Words given to the community of believers must lineup with the character
of Jesus and the Word of God.
Prophets in the New Testament were still there to warn, teach, and
correct. The brothers at Tyre warned Paul not to go to Jerusalem. When Paul
arrived at Caesarea, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea,
took Paul’s girdle and used it to tie his own hands and feet together, and
said, “The Holy Spirit says this: the man to whom this girdle
belongs will be bound like this by the Jews in Jerusalem and handed over to the
Gentiles!”
This same Agabus warned that a severe famine would spread
throughout the Roman world. And there were now women who prophesied, like the
four daughters of Philip. Prophesy is one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit and
is designed to edify the body of Christ. Prophecy was utilized in Rome,
Corinth, Ephesus, and Thessalonica churches.
Oh, and tradition says that Agabus went to many countries,
teaching and converting many. This moved the Jews of Jerusalem to arrest him,
and they tortured him by beating him severely and putting a rope around his
neck. He was dragged outside the city and stoned to death. He was martyred at
Antioch.
Where are the prophets today who will speak the hard truth about
our culture and the church? Who will tell the hard reality, regardless of the
personal consequences? Remember Samuel talking to Eli and Nathan to David? Most
prophets today speak in a manner that best suits themselves rather than in the
Christian community’s best interest. Where are those who discern the truth of
God and speak up for it?
Why are these voices essentially nonexistent? Because there is a
price to pay. Take a stand on any number of issues, and you will be shunned,
marginalized, discounted, and labeled—quickly. Choose a label, any label:
old-fashioned, out of touch with modern culture, right-wing white guy,
homophobic, bigot, bla, bla, bla, bla, bla. You will be discredited.
The majority of prophets (?) today use their influence for
personal fundraising, speaking opportunities (for a fee), conference after
conference (gotta sell those books), podcasts (for a fee), money, money, money.
These conferences are for Christian superstar entertainers. When is enough
enough? Does this scripture resonate with you as it does with me?
Portions of 2 Timothy 3: 1-7
“But you need to be aware that in the final days the culture
of society will be fierce. People will be self-centered lovers of themselves
and obsessed with money. They
will boast of great things as they strut in their arrogant pride. They worm
their way into the hearts of the vulnerable. They are always learning but never
discover the revelation-knowledge of truth.”
It seems that three pervading tendencies quiet the voices of the
New Testament prophet today. The voice of correction, warning, and direction.
1) The trend (sin) of being more concerned about drawing positive
attention to oneself, particularly in social media. How is social media
connected to a local Christian community?
2) The tendency (sin) of being “politically” correct.
3) Ignoring the apparent warning signs of people’s behavior.
I believe these sins answer the question, “Why is there no
Agabus among us?”
