“God Will Provide”

I am declaring the rest of 2008 as the year of “God Will Provide”

God is speaking to his people in this time of crisis when nations are being devastated with tragedy, financial collapse and cultural rebellion and to HIS people HE is saying “I will provide”.   HE is saying, MY PEOPLE SHALL PROSPER and they SHALL be PROVIDED for.  (This PROSPER means Provision)

This does not mean God’s people have a license to be financially reckless, act pourly with their finances or spend madly in faith, that is not God’s intention at all.   Instead God is saying “I AM the GOD THAT PROVIDES”.    HE will provide, HE is providing, HE will continue to provide for those who love HIM first with all of their hearts and are placing their treasure where their heart is.

Things are GOING TO GET WORSE in the world as his timing comes into the final hours and suffering is going to increase as nations harden their hearts towards HIM.  But for GODs people HE say’s “I WILL PROVIDE”.

Last night my good friend Steve and I went to Soul Survior church in Costa Mesa for a meeting with Todd Hunter, former US Director of Alpha USA aka The Alpha Course and former US Director of Vineyard Church Association.

Steve and I informally know Todd Hunter - identified as merely Todd for the rest of this article, from our early history studying and learning under Vineyard founding pastor, John Wimber back in the 1980’s where it began in a small internally remodeled Panasonic warehouse in Anahiem. This however was the first time I had seen him since the 1980’s other than some brief moments at the Vineyard in Anahiem church in the Canyon hills of Yorba Linda.

I recall some of the early encounters when John introduced Todd Hunter (a then young man in his early to mid twenties) essentially as an apostle of the baby boomer generation. Since that time Todd has in many ways fullfilled those prophetic insights of the late, great John Wimber.

Steve and I found out and were invited to participate in the meeting from our professor at Harvest Bible University in Los Angeles. She had mentioned in one of our classes exploring the current moves of God and doing church in alternative ways contrary to the traditional formats of church, knowing that Steve is associated with the Vineyard and I was in leadership in the Vineyard until 2005.

Todd’s meeting was an introduction to a book he is writing called 3 is enough. He presented us with a generic format of what the first part of the book will be - theology, and then introduced the vision he has been contemplating and desires to impart into the body of Christ. Notice I did not say into the ‘church’ because his vision is ultimately not about building churches or adding to already existing churches.

In light of what God has been showing me I could grasp what Todd hopes to accomplish in jist, while at the same time I left the meeting with one ultimate question which I also turned into Todd for for his Question and Answers page of the website he is developing.

Essentially Todd has come up with a unique way to do personal evangelism that escapes the necessity of church monitoring or even involement. This is important because of the double minded nature of church leaders in general in which one aspect desires to maintain control of even the slightest remark that might be contrary to the populistic perspective or tone trying to be set by a senior pastor while at the same time trying to motivate a physically exhausted group of people to go out and bring more people into the church, when in reality those individuals probably should sleep in on Sunday morning and get some rest. By getting some rest they would feel better and more energized for talking with people about Christ (emphasis mine)

So Todd’s book is about making Christianity human again. Yes that may sound a little strange but Jesus had that goal in mind when he came and modeled relationship with love for his friends the disciples and compassion for the masses. We do not see this kind of love or relational approach happening in our churches, in part because they have become institutionalized organizational systems worried about maintaining a 501 Non-profit permit and bringing in enough money to pay pastoral salaries. As my friend Joey Taylor once said, “When a church becomes institionalized, the people become secondary”, or as John Wimber once put it, (not an exact quote) After 15 years of doing church, we need to close this thing down, tear down the buildings and start over again. What Joey Taylor and John Wimber were indicating is that there is a cycle that occurs in a church, first meeting together in a small group in someones home, a rented room on a school campus, or similar situation, then buying a building, next the church stagnates and fails to reach its neighbors and community, becomes subject to the governments oversight for restricting a church from being able to speak on anything of a controversial or political nature or be subject to losing its tax exemption status and 501 operating permit, and finally slowly begin to die off as people get old, kids leave and everyone has heard the ‘we need to get out and do something’ lecture for the thousandth time. Notice I did not mention once the essence of the church in this religious structure that most churches and denominations go through.  What is missing in the church?  Genuine relationship!

When a church becomes instituionalized (a building and 501 permit status) it takes on a new form that I don’t believe God ever intended. It was never God’s intention first of all that there be a single individual overseeing all aspects of the church. In fact a careful study of the life of the Apostle Paul shows that he never raised up one specific individual to lead a group of Christians as a church. Instead, the Apostle Paul established a group of elders who oversaw and facilitated the functionality of a church. These elders were the leaders of those individual churches in their individual towns and cities where Paul had preached and then moved on. Instead the Apostle Paul monitored and instructed the churches while he was on the move going from one place to the next and only a few of those churches did he actually have the opportunity to revisit in the future. So there was no building, there were not paid leaders or administrators and there were no government worries or limitations for the churches Paul planted, instead these churches were all about meeting together, eatting together, encouraging each other, and lifting each other when things got tough.

Look at the life of Jesus, he never once established any churches. There is not one church where he set up a fishermen rock band to lead worship while he stood in front of the colorful stain glass windows at his newly made plastic podium next to the 20 foot tall LCD High definition color monitors where his image was being projected. Nope, Jesus never focused on the format. His ministry began and ended with people. First his was completely dedicated to friendship and relationship with his disciples and second he loved and had compassion for those who tagged along following him, and he healed their broken and weak bodies, hearts, minds and broke off demonic bondage.

In his up coming book Todd Hunter (aka Todd) will bring forth an alternative perspective in which church returns to the idea of being church (aka people based). He will present an approach that does not require a building, does not require a Christian worship band, does not require even a house to meet in, not even a 501 non-profit tax exemption certificate from Uncle Sam so that tithes can be written off of your taxes at the end of the year.

He calls this approach 3 is enough and was quite candid in admitting that many of his ideas have foundations in the works and efforts of others before him.

I don’t want to give away the plot line of the book… so you’ll have to wait until it finishes publication, but as I already mentioned it is a book about people. Meeting people where they are and inviting them into relationship with you as a Christian - minus the typical evangelistic goal of craming a bible down their throat and telling them how to do ‘Christianity’ your way.

I believe 3 is enough is simple enough that those who genuinely want to do more than become an evangelist filling a stadium or who want to do more for God than earn a tripple digit salary can do so.  Simple enough that you won’t have to look to another man in an exhalted position of relgious power (aka traditional pastor) for approval in order to effectively serve God and spread the Kingdom.

As Steve and I sat last night enjoying a meal together after the meeting at our favorite hang-out (IHOP) and discussed Todd’s up coming book, there were several questions we had.  First, who would be in charge?  Second, what would be the ultimate goal?  Third, where would it go from there?

Your probably wishing I had given you the basis to know why we were asking and contemplating these questions - and well, Todd has promised to eventually address some of these questions on his Three is Enough website.

O.K. here is the jist. The book is essentially about how God can use someone like you or me who has limited time and energy as we work to keep gas in our car so we can drive to our job tomorrow that is not dependant on the church or a vision of a church pastor who wants to build up a larger congregation. Instead, Todd proposes that the model of todays churches is counter productive to reaching the lost because of all of its rules and self righteousness (these are my words not his), the churches evangelistic goal is always to bring people into a church to hear a sermon, say a salvation prayer, pay tithe and then sit and spend the rest of their life slowly dying of boredom. On the contrary, Todd wants to see people merely become personal and unafraid of the world. If you are reading this then you are probably aware that most Christians have been brainwashed to fear the world. Don’t touch it, don’t look at it, don’t interact with it, don’t speak to them, don’t look them in the eyes, keep your money in your pocket when a smelly street person asks you for some change, etc.  That I admit has always been a contradiction that has existed in churches that has frustrated me.  It is not an idea necessarily propogated from a pulpit, but more so from conversations and relgious type attempts of well meaning brothers and sisters in our church. Todd wants to remove the fear and encourage you to simply drop your religiousity and be a human.  A man, a woman, a youth, an adult - whatever! Abandon everything religious that says beware of thy neighbor - and instead, just be nice to them.

This ‘goodness’ model is biblical.  We see Jesus sitting and simply being a good guy (aka friend) to the tax collectors, prostitutes by the local well and others and not having funky relationships with them where he kept them at a poles length in fear of picking up some worldly bug from them, but instead he was just himself with them - eating with them even to the objection of the religious leaders of the church, etc.  Todd wants us to go and do what Jesus modeled in his life and in 3 is Enough, Todd will provide a simple way on how we can do this.

Now don’t get me wrong, I love the church, the majority of my friends are pastors, prophets, apostles and leaders in all kinds of churches and one of my personal callings as a prophetic person is to bring restoration to burned up/out pastors and leaders. I also believe that the church even in its current form that in many ways fails to meet what I believe are the biblical foundations for a group of people to come together and become a church - has a purpose.

But as Todd will address in ‘3 is enough’ we essentially need a tool or model for being more than someone who simply goes to church each week, sings some worship and praise songs or hymns, listens to what usually equates to a religious lecture based on multiple scriptures which in reality apply to something totally different and then shake a couple of hands, go home and do it all over the next weekend or at a mid week meeting.  We as the bride of Christ need to be free from embarassment of being united with Jesus the savior, and the question of every genuine Christian I have ever known is ‘how do we reach the lost’.  Our normal approach is to look to one individual in the exhalted leadership role of pastor for a vision about how to do this, but the typical response is - well just go out and do it; or perhaps - go out and tell all your friends and neighbors to come to church next Sunday for Mothers day; or lets go door to door telling people about our church.  What Todd will bring to the table is a reality check that says - stop looking at the person on the podium for the answer and simply be who you are.  As God moves naturally within the relationships based on the ‘3 is enough’ concept, (which God will because it is simply a natural result of a Christian interaction with others) that is enough for others to be drawn to Christ.

Lets, face it - if you were not saved would you want to get up every Sunday morning when your tired and burned out to go and sit down on hard seats listening to a choir sing and someone lecture on religious things that make no sense to you?  No, you wouldn’t, you didn’t, and neither do people in the world.  People don’t want to have someone trying to convert them or convience them that their current religion is wrong if they even have one, nor that they are sinners.  But what does work is when the world has a real look into your life and they see Jesus in you. Not because your pushing Jesus, but because the Holy Spirit shines through your eyes as light that they don’t see in the eyes of anyone else they know.  What does work is when people hear the faith and hope you profess when your on the verge of losing your job due to an abusive and harassing boss.  What does work is when people look at you and see love and goodness inside - something they can’t see inside of themselves.

Though I haven’t read the book yet since Todd Hunter is still working on tying it up for final publication, I believe that the premise of his book fits in well with the revolutionary approaches that many in the church are turning to.

We want to see Jesus come into the lives of others and in the past we have placed all of our Avocados into baskets called the church and the pastor and this has reproduced insignificant amounts of fruit.  We no longer have time to depend on visions of church growth through marketing tools and modifcation of a church service.  We have to become an ‘army of three - which in turn has the potential to become three armies of three and so on.

We know either way that in Christ we ultimately win - we just merely need to have the right perspective individually to participate in excellerating it.

My final thought is that I know Todd Hunter’s organic approach has great potential for expanding the Kingdom of God.  I know because I have been personally implementing a very similar approach in my personal life within my personal arenas though I have done it one to one rather than three to one and I have seen some fruit recently though it took seven years of watering, befriending, investing and developing genuine relationship.

I anticipate that this 3 is enough concept should be an exciting thing to try for any Christian who is tired of all the religiousity and failure to see anyone come to Christ after years of being in the church.  It is an approach that brings you a lot of freedom and can be a lot of fun.  You know it really is a lot of fun when you see a spark in a unsaved persons eyes as they begin to ‘get it’.  In fact while talking over our IHOP meal, I mentioned to Steve how a young woman I have been essentially doing what Todd will present in his book, who was not saved and had no desire to be saved I frequently observed had more faith at times in God than I did, was eager to pray together even before she really knew who God was, and possessed in eagerness to pursue and find out about God from her own desire, making this friendship one of the easiest I have had, even more so than any of my ‘Christian’ friendships which I have found are generally conditional to my being involved in a particular church at a particular time in history or by being willing to agree with their particular perspective of Christian doctrine and theology.   I have since seen this young woman’s boyfriend come to Christ and her son and she will soon be wedded to her recently saved boyfriend.

How could I be bored when God’s love just begins to spread on its own all of a sudden?   I love the freedom that can be found in being involved with non-christians and ‘3 is enough’ takes it a step farther by allowing this freedom to occur and be shared among non-christians as well as Christians.

Hunters website should be up soon and you will want to visit it.  I have provided a link to it here on the Suddenly God blog. 

In the meantime you may desire to Google ‘ Three is Enough ‘ for articles by others who have met with Todd and my do a much better representation of presenting the purpose and vision of these 3 person mini-groups.

Randy Gorden 4/25/08

It is time to be getting back to the basics.

I spent this evening driving home for Whittier thinkings about all of the things that have been burdensome to me since entering 2008.  Changes on the job, the cost of video production initially and then ongoing costs, trying to find people who are like minded and like vision minded to work with the team as a ministry volunteer like myself, trying to keep the vision clear and in front of me, the slow pace of getting things pulled together, worry and fear of financial loss from theft or damage, etc. 

All of these things and more have been being dragged over me for several months now.  So as I was driving home tonight, I just decided to do something I hadn’t done for a long time, to simply shut up and listen.

It was back in 1991 and I was spending my Sunday evenings in Anaheim listening and learning about how to do church under John Wimber of the Vineyard.   My friend Steve and I were driving home to Pasadena and Steve was half asleep or at least begining to dose off.

I was feeling really down and discouraged that night because I had spent several years seeking, praying, begging God for more information about a trip to Japan that God had spoke to about in 1985.   I had become disillusioned and discouraged because this stuff hadn’t been coming together and so as I drove my car home and I couldn’t really pray or talk to God out loud since Steve was next to me, I just closed my mouth and asked quietly, “Holy Spirit, God-Father, Lord Jesus, how come I haven’t been able to go to Japan yet?”

It was then and there as I drove my car that the Holy Spirit spoke to me with words that would shake me and wake me up in a way that happened no other time.   The Holy Spirit said, “Its because you have resent and un-forgiveness in your heart towards me!” 
I was shocked!  I had no clue the God or the Holy Spirit had any concern about me or my heart.   I had always just thought he was my savior (Jesus) but other then going to church and trying to figure out what this whole God to man relationships was about, that was all God cared out.

There I was driving and literally in awe as the rebuke of the Holy Spirit rattled around inside of me.    I felt like acting all innocent  and say “When did I not forgive you” and such, but I knew I was guilty as charged.   The fact that it was actually Gods Spirit exposing my heart and telling me that it was my heart and attitude towards God that had been preventing me from going to Japan simply blew me away.

So I repented and asked God to forgive right there on the spot driving down the 605 Freeway.  If I could have dropped and fallen on my face at that very second I would have, but I was driving the car.   The moment I sincerly confessed and repented of my rebellion and taking things into my own hands (in the car) the Holy Spirit said, “You are forgiven - call the agency for Japan tommorow and tell them you want to go on their short term team”.     Right then I got so excitied I woke up Steve and told Steve eveything that had just occured and Steve and I thanked God.    The next day I called the agency and things began to open up.

Tonight, similar to asking God about Japan, I decided to shut-up and just ask the Holy Spirit to speak.  I repented of some of the things in my life like fear of theft, fear of the finances, fear of losing sight of the vision and other things and just asked the Holy Spirit to come.  

While I didn’t get the kind of answer I got that night while driving home from the Vineyard about Japan in 1991, I did see that lately my typical drive to make things happen now have been leading the passion instead of allowing the Holy Spirit to fully lead the planning and timing.   Like Peter out on the water I have taken my glance off of Jesus for a few moments and looked at the project and have found myself sinking in the water a little bit.    I regained some clarity that this is God’s video production and not mine or anyone elses.   I had to repent of fear of being in to deep financially and questioning and doubting God, I have also had to repent of sorting and figuring things out my way instead of being quiet, still, listening and looking to see what it is that God wants to do with it.

So tonight as I continuned on my way home, I just prayed in my spirit silently and waited on the Lord.    That is so basic.   It is such a basic thing to do - just be silent and know he is God, know that he is in control, that he knows my needs, he knows the plans, he knows how he wants to use it, he knows who to bring in and connections that he desires to make and I simply have to be still, quiet before the Lord and listen.   I also have to ask the Holy Spirit to reveal any incorrect attitudes in me, any incorrect passions or plans, any area of rebellion or unforgiveness or resent I may have towards God at the moment.

Getting back to basics is a good thing.   It places my relationship to God back into the correct perspective.   It requires me to take my eyes off of my abilities and visions and get back in touch with Gods plans and visions.   It requires me to step back into that place of submission to Christ and to put off those things that hinder me, turn my heart away from the church, and make me want to put up walls of self-protection so high in my life that even God has a difficult time getting over.

Waiting on God is not an easy thing to do.  And I have learned that sometimes this “waiting” occurs simply because we are not in a right heart place with God.   There may be areas of resent we have had towards God for many years that have continually acted as a block against God being able to give us what we have asked for.  

How many times have we unknowingly missed out on something God wanted to give us or bless us with because of self pride, self seeking, resentment towards God for almost any kind of reason?   It really happens all the time.   Most people don’t catch themselves because they are blinded spiritually to the things of God.    I was blinded and deaf in 1991 because of resentment and unforgiveness against God which in turn blocked the mission opening of the door to Japan to be hindered for five years.

If your reading this and something has been hindered from coming into your life that God had planned for you and maybe even spoken to you about.   Take a time out and ask the Holy Spirit to show you any area in your heart or thoughts that are hindering God from being able to pour out his favor and blessing on you.   Don’t miss out any longer on Gods blessing - some people go thier whole life waiting and begging God to bless them but it just doesn’t seem to come - and they are right it isn’t coming because of deeper rooted areas of sin and rebellion that have been pushed to the back of your mind or you just don’t want to give them up yet.    It could be sin or unforgiveness against God, a parent, family member, church member, co-worker or whoever.     Take time to get yourself right before God.

That’s what I am working on now - getting back to the basics.    Getting back to the basics means - getting back to where we first started out with God.   We came to Christ with a clean slate because he loves us.    We have to get back to our first love - Jesus Christ and the simple basics.

This month of April has been one of those months where ever dollar counts and it looks like I am about to hit rock bottom. Unfortunately, there have been a lot of those months - yet not once has it ever happened.

Instead, every single time God has come through - every time.

This month is not any different in that regard - once again as I have juggled my bank accounts to pay bills and keep from bouncing a check - God has come through on time. Now, I realize that Uncle Sam aka the IRS takes one third of my pay check every month - however once again God has used the IRS to ensure that money would be in my bank account at the time most needed. And for that I am thankful to God and the USA.

I don’t know if other countries ever see any of their money back at the end of the year from taxes - but I for one am very greatful that God has used this money to bless my bank account this month. April and May as well as December and March always seem to be months where the enemy really seems to attack my finances? I can’t say why for sure - but it is always the same time - like around August and September too.

The great thing is not once have I lacked and not once has a check bounced. It is true that there have been times in the past that I have had to modify my plans because of a financial shortfall - but not very often.

The other thing that comes to mind today is how often God has met my needs when it is not tax time. Like when I had to raise support to go as a missionary to Japan, or how God provided the money to go to Nashville, TN for The Call and even take my God son with me. To many times I have taken my eyes off of Christ and like the Apostle Peter who was walking on water ok until he looked down instead of Jesus and began to sink; I have done the same.

Now on the drive home from work today I was thinking about how since I received Jesus as my savior I have been expecting to be blessed. I have expected God to bring a wife, I expected God to place me into a great career, I expected God to give me a vision and passion for pursuit of it that would be clear and give me the push to run after it, and I have expected God to give me children, a house, faithful friends, financial blessings, etc. And for 90% of these I am still waiting at age 42.

Now I don’t know why God hasn’t brought those things and I am not even sure where or how I came up with the notion that he would. I think much of my expectations about God came from well meaning Sunday School teachers or my mom’s words to just trust God and have faith.

Well, I am not dead yet so there is always hope that some if not all of these things can still come to pass. Yet, I spent years and years struggling, longing, discouraged and wrestless while waiting and praying and hoping. But nothing changed and instead another year went down the drain having been wasted on the failure of God to meet my expectations.

Earlier this month I was reading my bible during lunch time and I read something that suddenly made a bunch of other verses I had read before make sense. The verse was about Abraham. You know the book of Hebrews in the bible says that God called Abraham and man of faith? Yet, when I read the story of Abraham, I kept seeing his lack of faith - much like my moments of lacking faith. Abraham lacked faith when he entered two different cities and told everyone that his beautiful wife was his sistor.

He lacked faith that the God who told him to get moving would protect him as well as his wife. Instead he was afraid someone might kill him and take his wife. So on two different occasions he told a “half-truth” - a lie. And what happened as a result? The Kings in those towns took his wife for their own. At that point it took God having to step in and speak directly to the king telling them that God was going to kill them unless he gave Abraham’s wife back to him. Then the king would rebuke Abraham for lying to him and give him his wife back.

Abraham later showed lack of faith in God when he allowed his wife to give him her handmaid as Abrahams wife to act as a sort of serrogate so Abraham could bare a son as God had told them. But what happened here? It back fired and though he did conceive a child with the Egyptian Hagar - Sarah’s handmaid - it wasn’t what God had in mind and it ended up causing a adversary against Isaac and his descendants.

There are a lot of things Abraham did that we would call lacking faith, but what I found amazing is that God just looked past those things. God didn’t sweat his petty fears and lack of faith that caused Abraham to lie. God instead looked at Abraham as a whole man over time. I believe there are two areas that God looked at in Abrahams life that made him call Abraham a man of faith.

1.) Abraham had more faith than any man I have ever know - willing to kill his son at God’s command - because he knew that God had promised that son would be blessed and become a great multitude of people in the future.

He also knew that if God allowed Isaac to be killed - that because God had promised him ‘in person through the angel of the Lord’ that God would bring him back to life.

2.) Abraham trusted God that everything had promised him would come to pass. Now this may not sound like much a of faith thing - especially since Abraham did not live to see it fullfilled. However, it was only this month while studying my bible over a lunch break that I read something that answered a long time question.

If Abraham did not see the fulfillment and it turns out that neither did Isaac - was it ever fulfilled?

The answer is affirmative!

In fact it took 400 years! Can you imagine God making you a promise and never seeing it in your life time. I don’t know about you but I would become discouraged and my faith would wobble a little. I would also have all kinds of questions about if it had really been God or maybe the enemy messing with me.

Again, it took 400 years from the day that God told Abraham that the land he walked would belong to him and his children and their children for it to come to pass.

First, Abraham had to do the walking of the land, splitting off from Lot and then saving lot, having Ishmael then losing Ishmael, having Isaac and being told buy God to kill Isaac only to have God rescue Isaac, and so forth - then he died.

Next was Isaac and his story leading up to one of his sons Jacob who had the prophetic dreamer of the coat of many colors named Joseph.

Then Joseph had to save Isreal (Jacob) from the famine in the world by establishing him as a ruler only second to Pharoh himself.

Then down from the line of Joseph came Moses who had to lead the people out of slavery in Egypt only to never enter the promised land but having to turn it over to Joshua.

Then Joshua led the Isrealites into the promised land to do war and remove those in the land.

All of this took 400 years and none of those who initially received the promise ever saw it! And hear I am whinning and complaining because for some of the expectations I have had of God are still unmet at age 40!

Sheesh - I am just glad it hasn’t been a 100 years!

The point is that God is faithful and well, we may never see some of the things God has promised over us in our life time. That is a wild concept - but it can be observed in the bible numerous times.

I believe that we have a lot of expectations that we don’t realize are not from God. We have had a lot of well meaning people over time to tell us things they think or hope but often have no biblical similar situation to base them on. At the same time there are also those things that we have been taught by leaders in the church as true for us, but were actually totally specific to a particular person or situation.

A good example of erroneous self applications of scripture taught within most churches is the hope that God will bring us a husband or wife like he did for Isaac.

Even modern translations of the bible take the liberty of adding to that passage of scripture the idea that this event in the life of Isaac was a model of the Holy Spirit and God bring a wife.

The reality is that it was just something God did in the life of Isaac - it’s not the way the Holy Spirit is going to work in every Christians romance life while looking for a mate.

Instead, God does it different for everyone and for some people he doesn’t do it all. For instance I have several friends in their 50’s and 60’s who have been waiting for their husband to God. Several of them have had guest speakers to the church prophecy that God was going to bring them a particular person - even giving details. Yet, those men never came after 20 or more years now.

If you look at global statistics of population - there are always more woman in the world than there are men and the possiblity that there be an Adam for every woman is impossible unless maybe some of them marry infants and even then the male birthrate would still offset that possibility.

Thus the ‘Abraham & Isaac marriage idea’ that too many churches and leaders teach is impossible population wise not to mention the lack of any real evidence. The bottom line of all of this is that though I have expectations of God that have gone unmet - my expectations may not even be fully real ones.

I know people at church who actually believe God is going to give them the lottery - and these people have discussed their ideas of how in exchange of God blessing them this way they are going to buy cars and house for their family members and give a tenth of it to the church. Wow - how real is that? Why would God bless them with millions when (we) stiff him with the little we already have? He won’t!

This writing is my stirring up my faith in God. I have a lot of things coming over the next few months that are not only money related, but major changes in the company I work for that directly effect me and a wedding of a friend, etc.

Lots of things to get my eyes focused on other things than God. God is faithful! But HE is under no obligation to meet our demands or expectations of him. In reality HE is God and though HE love us HE is like a parent who loves us who won’t meet all of our expectations but will meet our needs, love us, rescue us, etc.

It is my opinion that we have no right to come to God with our selfish expectations of him. Yet, he lets us and some of them he may even be willing to meet just because he loves us, but we have no right to demand or become discouraged or throw a fit if he doesn’t. So today I am thankful that I serve Jesus Christ - the GOD who loves me, cares for me, rescues me, provides for my daily needs, blesses me and who I hope will one day bring me the wife I have hoped for.

But even if that woman never comes and I never marry I can be happy and thankful because God is able and willing to meet not just my financial and physical needs but also my emotional and spiritual needs too. God is faithful and I am thankful that God placed me in the USA.

During the summer of 2006 I spent a month studying in Mexico’s state capital of Guanajuato and praying daily over the city for Revival.

 One of the main churches other than the Catholic churches is a strong Mormon church movement and very few Christian churches.

Guanajuato may be one of the most beautiful places in Mexico with its mild weather and clear skys.

Join me in praying and asking God to bring revival to Guanajuato which is essentially in the middle and heart of Mexico.   A revival in Guanajuato has the potentinal of spreading out like a wave into all the surrounding areas of Mexico.

Feel free to view some of my photos.

http://riohondorandy.spaces.live.com/

When church leaders fail

By Randall Gorden
4/08/08

As a man growing up I often became frustrated when things I was promised by someone never came to pass and flat out failed, either before it began or in the middle. It left me with the three D’s - disappointed, disillusioned and discouraged.

The bigger the promise, the harder the fall was when it failed to come to pass, why, because I had placed my faith and hopes and dreams in that person or people.

This was especially damaging in my perspective of the church and again is the question, Why?

It was most damaging when a church leader(s) or what I perceived the church to be, failed to fulfill a promise even if they didn’t perceive that they were initiating a promise because I perceived them as the embodiment of Christ.

They stood up or portrayed themselves as heads of the church, under the ‘authority’ of Christ over the church, etc.   So as they failed, in essence to a young person like myself - Christ in essence failed and that damaged my faith.  It made me come to perceive God as untrustworthy along with those who represented themselves as being his voice or head over a church or body of people.

As I write this I can almost hear a sort of amused sound of people in the past who I have discussed this concept with in different churches and with different leaders.  I recall comments similar to; you just need to move on; you just have to wait for God to do it; don’t be a wuss; get over it.   All of those phrases and words are cop-outs in my opinion because it was a leader’s way of shrugging responsibility.  Unfortunately, many of those kinds of responses came from leaders who I had been merely talking with, had no formal relationship within their church.  Yes, they were not even those who had failed me, yet they instantly had blame shifted a defensive response on someone who was ‘just a church member and not a leader’ as though being a leader in a church automatically placed you above reproach and provided a person with special qualifiers.

So as I reflected on this on the way into work today, I realized something.  I considered the way that people in the church become complacent and though God often has already placed the resources for not only the completion of a promise or vision but also for the continuation of a promise or vision, too many times leaders in the church let it slide past them. They let it slide past them because during the beginning or middle of the fulfillment of that promise they discover it is going to cost something.  What tends to happen at that point is failure to invest the required cost.

Now, what I think is ironic about this is that God often places all the resources in their hands in advance and the only requirement is often maintaining those resources, updating those resources or continuing in the initial investment of the resources.  It is like the prophetic in a sense, as often times with the New Testament prophecy you only receive the initial instruction (the good sounding stuff) but the conditions to receiving the prophetic are often left out.  If you don’t meet the minimal conditions, you often miss what God had intended to give you.   This can even be seen in the Old Testament as Moses was called up onto the mountain after the Israelites had observed a time of cleansing.  When Moses received the prophetic promises of God for Israel, he also received the conditions of the promise.  Failure to meet the conditions would result in the opposite happening.

You may know that there is a verse in the bible that essentially says not to make any covenants or promises to God that you are not going to be able to keep.  This would be wise for church leadership to put into practice in everything they do.   Too often within a church the leaders and/or people become zealous about a poorly thought out or considered plan and in turn make promises that they will never be able to met.   In doing so, people are hurt.

It is true that promises are going to be made and broken within the context of the church and as a result people who believed and invested in the plan or idea are going to end up getting hurt.  It is human to fail.  But as I contemplated this failure that occurs primarily within churches that are institutionalized, I also realize that failures like these are meant to open our eyes.  No matter how convincing, charismatic or anointed a leader may be, it has never been, nor will it ever be Gods desire for people to place their eyes on or follow a man.

God sent the Holy Spirit for us to follow and to have point the way and when our focus and eyes are on Jesus and what God is doing, then we don’t have to worry about a self, church or seminary appointed human failing us when they don’t deliver.  We know Jesus does not fail nor does Holy Spirit fail.

The bottom line is that church leaders are going to continue making plans and promises based on the assumption that they are following God’s Will and unfortunately there are times when their ability to hear God or see what God is doing is limited.  Leaders in the church will also continue to miss opportunities for failing to take the necessary steps even after the resources for the fulfillment of a blessing have been made available.

It is for this reason that the following are imperative to those participating in an institutionalized church where some people are placed and considered of higher authority.

1.) That you do not let yourself become discouraged when they fail.

2.) That you keep your focus on the task at hand and not invest all of your time or energy into a vision until you have observed the commitment level of those leaders and that church to invest the needed resources or time needed to facilitate that vision.  

3.) That above all else you keep your eyes, passion, pursuit and desires on Jesus Christ rather than on lay leaders, elders or pastors.

4.) That you do all things and respond to all things with an attitude with love.   Not always easy to do, but the characteristics and qualities of biblical defined love allows for the grace to overcome, the mercy not to judge harshly, the ability to see past the desire of instant gratification and urgency of leadership and move forward patiently as God leads so you are not swept away, to respond with a correct heart and not in jealousy, etc.

5.) That you recognize now, in advance those leaders in the church will fail sometimes.  Many of their proposal and visions will start and then die along the way.  It’s just a matter of time - so go in knowing this in advance.   Even the most gifted prophetically of leaders in the church are going to miss-it from time to time.   Realize that they do not have all the answers and don’t expect them to.  You’ll save yourself a lot of problems.

The Cost Of Revival: It sounds like rain.

by Randall Gorden

This paper is the result of study, observation and interviews with leaders of several different major church denominations.   I can not recall exactly when I wrote it. It is being presented in its current unedited form and has spelling errors in it, it has not been revised or updated yet. 

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Revival is built not on hopes, but passionate cries of desperation.

It seems that there is a verbal call for Revival in the land, but maybe nothing more.  Revival is the cool term for the modern church but in many cases that is all the power behind it; merely a term.  But a term in and of itself never accomplished anything before.  It is easy to call a church a revival church and it may even attract new business for the church as in many cases in the end goal, but in and of itself becomes a marketing took.

So what is the revival that is sung in our modern worship songs and how many people understand the cost.  Perhaps only a few. 

This word revival brings forth a lot of different thoughts to mind.  Big Tent Revival is the first; Old School Revival is another, extended ministry time with a guest speaker, having a special weekend meeting.   Revival may have come in these forms in the past over the years, but what does it mean today?  What is the purpose of revival?  Why does the church want it, or does the church really know what is asking for?

These are all questions that could be asked; should be asked; but will not be asked.  Because they have all been asked before.  It would be easy to write down a list of what Revival looked like in the past because it has happened in the past.  A better question is what will revival look like next and what will bring revival to this generation.

Revival needs narrowly defined on what is needed today.  Today the church needs a revolution.  A revolution against conformity, expulsion of ”tolerance” and secular ideals, purging of the mundane goals and purposes of a church trying to expand into a greater ministry. 

After all, revival is not a marketing tool to generate greater revenue and create a larger membership base, yet too many church pastors are the primary vision carriers and numbers and dollars are often rooted in that vision.

Over the past 10 years I had the opportunity to ask quite a few pastors and leaders what their vision was for their church.  99% had growing in numbers of members within the church as their primary goal.  Second on the agenda was expanding into a new building.  Third was expanding with new programs or creating its own bible college.  Encountering the Glory of God was also top of these pastors’ agenda.

So I posed the same question to all of them out of concern for what I was hearing; it was not what my heart was crying for.

How many people do you expect?   The first told me that God promised them a church of 2500. Another told me as many as possible. Another told me 4500.

So I asked another question.  What do you believe this will do for the church, and as I asked that question a sparkle twinkled in many of their eyes as the expounded on their visions of having more people, being able to do more, having larger programs.   Some of the programs sounded alright, such as food bank ministries, homeless shelters to battered women, schools and colleges, etc.  But I was still not hearing what was in my heart.   For the focus of the visions though revival was mentioned by several of them, also landed on the inability of that church to be affective by the quantity of membership size.   Why?  Because membership size meant there would potentially be more servant type of people to volunteer to run the programs and second because running large programs cost a lot of money.  Essentially, the more people you have who can or will tithe, the more finances you have to run your programs with.

This is a severely flawed vision of to many church vision planters.  Why?  Because the visions are people powered and money dependant.  As long as a church is dependant on these two sources of motivation and energy, revival will never stop at their door step.   Why?  Because God is not willing to share his Glory with others at his expense.   And when it comes down to it, glory and power is what these visions are essentially about.

What glory and power comes from this kind of vision?  Leaders of large churches generally end up with a very extensive traveling agenda, because smaller churches often see size as representation of Gods favor on a leader and ministry.  These ministry road trips generate a lot of finances for the pastor that is independent of the salary received from their church.

An exhaled ministry title is also often bestowed on pastors of large churches that were built up by a pastor.  Titles like Prophet, Bishop, Apostle, Evangelist, titles that make smaller ministries desire to have these pastors visit their church to speak to them, out of hopes that perhaps they will receive some form of impartation from the pastor that they feel their pastor is not imparting.

Likewise a new building and large building comes with more staff and larger offices, higher salary, etc.  To a pastor or minister who has bills to pay this is a significant benefit.

Once the twinkle faded out of the pastor or leaders eye after being asked what they expected having a large ministry would do for them, I re-worded what I was initially told just to make sure I was clear on what they were saying.  For example I might say, “So the vision for the church is to have (X) amount of new members?”   They would always respond positive.  Then I would say, “Additionally, the vision is to have a (X) expanded ministries to serve the community?”  Again they would respond positive.  

Finally, I would ask the question, that to my surprise no one had asked them before, no one had challenged the vision by, no one had thought about.   “So where would these new members come from?  Would these be Christians?”   Again each of them responded positive.  So I followed up, “So what you are saying is that you would like to build a church of (X) amount of Christians who are unchurched or are ready to leave the current church?”  Again, responding positive but now with a somewhat less enthusiastic look on their faces as they began to ponder why my questions continued and not with the anticipated zeal others had been showing them.

“So”, I would begin, your plan is dependant on gathering together a bunch of people who are already Christians, to come together to have a big ministry.   At this point I could observe hesitation and reservation in their faces as they were about to respond.  “Yes, basically”, they would reply, “as well as some new Christians too”.

It utterly amazed me to hear this.  I was stunned.  I had to respond.

Wouldn’t it be more likely, that if God has indeed promised you a church of this size that his desire would be for a church of newly saved people rather than a church that assimilates local smaller and struggling churches?

Generally, the response would be, “Uhhh, yes, I suppose so” and the leader would provide some form of justification or modification to what they had said.   Additionally, disappointing because it indicated that their intentions were anything other than revival, during the next church meeting or one very close from the conversation we had, their vision would suddenly change and they would announce that God had shown them or corrected their vision from being a large church of (X) size full of Christians, to one of being full of new Christians.

The problem is that too many leaders do not recognize the true cost of revival.   Revival is not a term to indicate the approval or anointing of a church, leader, or ministry.  It is not a tool for marketing the church or increasing new memberships by offering the newest and exciting thing God is doing and thereby causing local churches to die.   That is not revival.  That is a “Corporate takeover” as it is called in the business community.

Revival is also not about providing a leader or pastors an opportunity to travel around across the world to speak at other churches.   While it is sometimes nice to have a guest speaker, the pastor of a church is there and paid to be there to speak, hear from God, help lead and impart visions, etc.  Especially in those churches that lack or push out those members who have the heart of the prophet.

Revival will cost everything a church has.  It will require not money, not a new building, not a new program or a school, but the time, heart and mind of each person.

Revival requires an earnest cry of the heart for Gods presence to come and stir up and sweep through a church and its community.  A heart, cry, and earnest plea to God to save ones neighbors, friends, family and co-workers.

Revival comes during separation from the entertainments of society to be spent on prayer, fasting, worship and community. 

Revival is people dependant.  Not quantity of people dependant, but passion of people dependant.  It requires community and relationship as well as vulnerability, the surrendering of pride which prevents community in sincerity, humility and grace.

Revival is something God does when his people are loving him in community.  Whether it be a small community revival or a world revival, relationship with each other and with God are essential.   Many churches will never see revival because though they go through the routines of praying and fasting, they lack love.  They lack love for one another.  They treat each other harshly, short tempered, impatiently, abrupt and impersonal.   They want to experience a manifestation of God that will make them wiggle or roll on the floor, perhaps laugh or fall over, but lack love and community.  God will not visit in such a place as this.  He sees the heart.

When it comes and if it comes, it will come like rain.   Rain comes from above.  It starts to come down lightly, then more rain and bigger drops come, followed by yet bigger drops, thunder and lightening.   It may decrease for a while and then have some burst and flash floods, then decrease again.    Revival like rain is not meant to last forever and like rain comes at the right season and right time.

Revival does not come at the urging of shouts and stirred up services anymore than rain must come on a cloudy day.   It comes when there air is full of moisture and so saturated that it can do nothing less than fall down on us.  Revival is similar, it does not come until it can not do anything but come, it has to come when the air of Gods presence is so saturated with the heart of Gods people that it pours down rain.   But like rain it will not come until the conditions are right.    A right heart, a right vision, a right understanding of Gods heart and desire, a correct response in love to other brothers and sisters in Christ, a desire and heart for community and relationship.

In the book of Acts in the bible, in the upper room, there were several factors present.  

1.) The people were gathered together to celebrate Christ.   2.) The people knew each other and were in relationship with each other - they were a family and not individualistic or independent of one another, giving to each other sacrificially as there were needs. 3.) They were passionately desiring God rather than passionately desiring an experience.  We often say we are like they, but passionately desiring God requires passionately desiring the things of God, including intimate relationship with others in the body. This is where we fail.  People do not see the love in the church and we hate to be together.  Being together is a waste of our time it often seems. 

4.) They ate together and worship together.

5.) They cried out to God and for the Holy Spirit to come.   Often times, we never ask the Holy Spirit to come.  We might sing songs about it, or toss the phrase into a prayer, but we rarely simple pray intentionally and ask the Holy Spirit to come.

6.) They prepared and consecrated themselves to God through communion and the breaking of bread.

7.) They worshiped together.

What was the result?  The building shook, a sound like rushing wind came in, and things that looked like tongues landed on the head - the Holy Spirit came.

8.) They were expectant.

9.) They were not judgmental or limited in their perceptions of how God might come.  They recognized that God is creator of the universe and has not ceased to be creative.  Therefore, God was able to come upon them in a creative manner.   Never before had a rushing wind or things like tongues of fire been seen before.  They did not place limitations of how the Holy Spirit could present itself.   This is an area of significant failure within the modern body of Christ.  We have extremely limited perceptions of how the Holy Spirit can come, and if it is anything outside of our religious perceptions as taught by pastors and leaders of the church, and then we immediately judge it as not being from God.

If the Holy Spirit came into any church in the existence today with an earthquake, sound like rushing wind, and then supernatural visually presented things looking like a human tongue floating in the air, looking like they are on fire, and then landing on peoples heads and entering them, it would be immediately judged as a demonic activity or carefully and expertly executed hypnosis or drug effect introduced through the air or communion wine or bread.  We can not limit God to what has been done, since everything that has been done had not previously been done when it first occurred.  

As long as we expect the Holy Spirit to come with Revival in a manner similar to what occurred in the past, that revival will not come.   What was needed in the past is not relevant to what is needed now.

If you find that this article/blog post has stimulated anything in your heart, use it as motivation to ask the pastor or key leader in your church what the vision is.  Don’t be afraid to ask or challenge.

(Are you) Hearing God’s Voice?

Randall Gorden

2/27/2004

Often times God will speak through other people about a prophetic dream I have shared. 

When that person first read or head the dream, it seemed clear to them, but then a few minutes later they had doubts about it and rationalized away the possibility that what they were thinking about the dream could apply to it. 

What happen next would be that this person out of embarassment would never let me know the thoughts that had come to them about the dream initially and then months later when I might be talking about the way the God used the dream, that person would then bring up the “Crazy Ideas” they had about the meaning of the dream.    

What I have found is that almost always, these people had been hearing from the Holy Spirit, insight about the dream.  It was almost always information that would have been very valuable to me in the assessment and interpretation of the dream too.   But, because the person felt embarrassed by the idea of sharing the thoughts about the dream, the enemy was able to come in and cause doubt and rationalization to occur and therefore steal away the insight.    It is no ones fault when that occurs, it merely means that sometimes the Holy Spirit will talk to people who normally are not used to hearing him speak prophetically and they are not “clued in” when it happens. 

I believe the Holy Spirit does this so that those people who are faithful to share even when it sounds weird or embarrassing, can later be encouraged when they find out how valuable the little piece of information they shared became.     God wants his people to be able to recognize his voice when he speaks, and sometimes that occurs merely by being faithful with the little bit that he gives you, so that you can be encouraged for the next time he talks to you, so you know his voice a little better. 

People have often asked me, “How come I never hear from God?  How come I can’t hear God the way you do; how come God speaks to you, but he never speaks to me? 

The answer for any one who belongs to Christ is really quite simple.    Everyone is hearing from him, but some people are merely to busy to take the time to learn to recognize his voice, where as others who God has been speaking to for years are often afraid it might be the enemy speaking to them instead, and still others hear God loudly frequently, he’s as loud as he can be spiritually without having to resort to audible sound. 

These people God is speaking to loudly just don’t recognize it is God, and when they get even the slightest idea that “Hmm, I wonder if that could be God speaking those things into my head”, the enemy comes and causes rationalization that kills the prophetic voice of God your hearing. 

The bible makes this clear in the following passages:  Which indicate both that God speaks to us, and that we can refuse to hear him if we choose. 

Psalm 95:7“Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, as you did at Massah in the desert, where your fathers tested and tried me, though they had seen what I did. 

John 10:3 The watchman opens the gate for the sheep, and the sheep listen to his voice.  He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 

Hebrews 3:7“Therefore God again set a certain day, calling it today, when a long time later her spoke through David, as was said before.”Today, if your hear his voice, do not harden you hearts”. 

 I am saying all of these things, just to encourage those of you who feel they never hear God’s voice about anything.     As you know, we are all part of the “body” of Christ.   A body that functions together has different parts doing different things all at the same time.  

For example:   When you have a booger in your nose, the inside of the nose has nerves that sense that their is a hard mass in your nose.  Then your brain tells your hand to put your shirt sleeve or a tissue up to your nose and next it tells your throat to close of the door to your mouth and force air from your lungs into your nasal cavity to expel the booger.   If that doesn’t work, the brain sends a message to your finger to dig the booger out of your nose.    

O.K. that is a weird example, but do you really expect anything less from me? The point is that like a military fleet of troops going into Iraq to fight or keep the peace, each man or woman in the troop has a different role.  Some can handle heavy weapons, others can merely shoot a gun, others are tactical, others are officers, others simply drive the truck, some provide medical attention, others are intelligence scouts who provide the main information about where to find or avoid the enemy, some operate the communication network between the troops and the headquarters, etc. etc.    Though they each have different jobs, there are some basic things that all of them can do.   Shoot a gun, blow something up, dig a fox hole or shelter, live on little sleep, and provide CPR.  This is similar to the kingdom of God.  

All of us are equipped with the ability to hear God.   All of us can lay hands for the healing of the sick.  All of us can pray to God and get answers, sometimes “yes”, sometimes “no”, sometimes “wait”.   The body of Christ is similar.   

 Hearing God is a merely a matter of learning what his voice sounds like and the different ways that he talks. I am going on and on about this, to encourage you to learn to hear God’s voice by checking it out and relying any impression, picture, or thoughts about this dream you might get after you read it. 

I know what it is like to “not hear God” as well as “hearing God”.   I know how embarrassing it feels to step out and say something, because then your mind questions everything you said, and you wonder if maybe you were wrong, and then the enemy comes and tells you “yes, you were wrong”, but the Holy Spirit is reassuring you that you were actually right.   

When you first start out, that really sucks I’ll merely thank you for what you gave, and then see if God gives me any additional insight from what he gave you.   Sometimes, he may give you something to speak to someone that will not make sense until after the matter.  

Why does God do that?   He does it so that both you and the person can be encouraged after the event by looking back and seeing that his hand was on the person you were praying for at the time, and to encourage you by later finding out that “yes”, God can speak to you.

Some thoughts on how to pray…

By Randall Gorden

There have been times in my life, similar to your life that I have sat down to pray about different things going on in my life, only to be left feeling unheard and unanswered.   Why?  

This is a short exploration about prayer. 

Who do we pray to, how do we pray, why do we pray, how does God answer, does God always answer, does prayer really do anything?   All of these are going to be discussed to some degree or another as you continue to read on.  First let’s look at the basics.  

 

Who do we pray to?  

 

There can be multiple answers to this question depending on where you are coming from.   If you happen to have received Jesus Christ as your savior, being that he died for your sins on the cross as portrayed in Mel Gibson’s movie “The Passion of the Christ”, then Jesus is who you would being praying to. 

Jesus being God’s son died on the cross for our sins.   The bible teaches us that anyone who will believe in Jesus and receiving his gift of salvation through his suffering on the cross, death, and resurrection, then you can be forgiven of your sins and have relationship with God the Father, Jesus, and the Spirit of God called the Holy Spirit.  

When God first created mankind, God created man without sin, but with the capability to act with in his own will and free choice to not obey God.  Man, also known as Adam made the decision to disobey God and in so doing brought about the knowledge of right and wrong, obedience and disobedience, righteousness and sin.  This sin brought about a curse on Adam’s generational seed.  And Adam’s offspring perpetuated the curse of sin by their own disobedience and so on.   This curse created man’s separation from God.  

It was God’s initial intent and desire that mankind would be in relationship with God at all time, but sin created a divide.   As such, a means of redemption was needed.   Since sin essentially was the curse until death for men, only the pure sacrifice of a pure man for the sins of cursed man would be able to redeem mankind and restore the means of relationship with God.   Thus, God sent Jesus, part of the trinity union of the Godhead, to earth as a man to provide that pure sacrifice in man’s place to redeem man back to God.  

Jesus offered himself as a sacrifice on behalf of us who would believe and receive him as Lord and Savior.   Had he not died on the cross for our sins, man would not have a means to relationship with God.   It is through God’s son Jesus the Christ that we can come to God the father.   The blood of Jesus literally cleanses us of our sins when we commit our lives to Jesus.  This allows us to come before God the father in essence through Jesus his son.   Jesus intercedes for our spirit before God the Father. 

As Christians in Jesus Christ, when we pray, we pray to God the father and Jesus Christ intercedes for us.   We go straight to the source in other words.  

 

There are some religions with a “Christian” heritage who teach that a priest must intercede your prayers to God.   This is not a New Testament teaching of the bible and denies the authority of Jesus Christ to intercede for us, and denies the reality that God the Father indeed desires to have relationships with us.

There is only one name by which man can be saved from the punishment we deserve for living in rebellion against God.   Only Jesus Christ can save us from the punishment.   Likewise, there is only one name by which we are worthy to come before the presence for God the father through prayer.  

 

Again, that is by the name and relationship we have with Jesus God’s son.   There is no scriptural support in the new testament of the bible to support the idea of our having to have a man priest intercede for us and hear our confessions of sin.  In the Old Testament before Jesus died for our sin, it was necessary for a man priest to intercede on our behalf and sacrifice a blood atonement for our sins before God.   Jesus however became our blood atonement for sin when he died on the cross and therefore also assumed the priestly role of intercessor before God.   

Any church which teaches that only a priest can intercede or pray too directly to God is in serious error.    

There are also churches generally accepted as “Christian” churches that we can pray directly to saints, Jesus’ mother Mary, priest, etc. to intercede on our behalf to Jesus or God.   However, such teaching is unbiblical and in serious error. 

When Jesus was with his disciples they once asked him, “Will you teach us how to pray”.   Jesus taught them what is know as the Lord’s Prayer as a structure.  Never did he imply or suggest that we must go to a priest to intercede for us and he never implied or suggested that we can pray to Mary or any of the saints.  Instead he taught that we pray directly to God the Father. 

The Lord’s Prayer. 

What is the Lord’s Prayer?   Why should we pray this way?  

Let’s take a look.The Lord’s Prayer goes as follows. “Our Father who art in heaven, holy is your name.   Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.   Give us today our daily bread and lead us not into temptation.  Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.  For yours are the kingdom and the glory and the power.  Amen” Above is the way the Lord’s Prayer was originally translated into English.  

Now we could get the idea that we should just pray and repeat this prayer.  However, that was not the intent of Jesus.   Instead it was a model or structure of how to pray.  

Let’s first of all use a modern English translation of the Lord’s Prayer. 

1.  “Father God who reigns in heaven, your name is holy. 
2. I ask for your will today in my life here on earth to be accomplished in the same way that your will in heaven is accomplished. 
3. I ask these things with the same confidence and assurance that I also know your Kingdom has come and will come again. 
4. I ask that you would provide for my needs today. 
5. All of my needs including my finances, my health, food to eat, clothes to wear, and shelter to cover me when I rest. 
6. Father God, do not allow me to be lead into temptation to day, but instead deliver me from any traps and temptations that Satan has set-up before my path. 
7. And father, I ask that you would forgive my debts to you in the same way that I have and do forgive the debts of those who owe me. 
8. I come asking you for your provision today Father, because the Kingdom of God belongs to you.  
9. You oh, God are worthy of that Kingdom. 
10. You deserve the Glory, all Glory as the creator of all things. 
11. You have all the power over all things as well Father, life and death. 
12. Your worthy of all my praise and I think you that I can come before you today to talk to you and bring these request and needs to you.  Amen. 

Now this is a much expanded translation or paraphrase, but it is more along the line of the intent that Jesus had in mind when he taught the Lord’s Prayer.   Several things are occurring in the Lord prayer. 

Again, they are examples, and not what literally needs to be prayed verbatim everyday.   As Christian we are in relationship with God and his son Jesus.   Like any relationship, we simply do not come repeating the same words over and over again to our husband, wife, friend, or co-workers.  Likewise, Jesus did not intend that we approach God the Father in such a manner either.  

Reading scripted prayers that someone else wrote is like speaking to your wife all the time with words that you found in a book.   There would be no feeling, no self expression, and no relationship with your wife if everything you talked to her about was read or repeated from memory.   Instead, God desires us to be in relationship with him, similar to his original intent with Adam.  

Jesus in essence restored our ability to return and establish once again the relationship that Adam abandoned.  Relationship whether it be with a husband, wife, parent, kid, etc. is developed from regular talking and communication about present time events occurring in life.  

If everyday you asked your wife for a cheese sandwich, how would she know that what you actually wanted was bacon and eggs for breakfast if you didn’t communicate the needs and desires you have.  She wouldn’t know, and you would end up eating cheese sandwiches everyday for ever.  That would get boring.

So let’s take a look at the Lord’s Prayer as a template and model of how to pray. 

First the “Lords prayer” begins with an acknowledgement of who God is. 

“Our father who is in heaven, holy be your name.” 

The second part of the prayer acknowledges that God has a will that can be fulfilled both on earth and in heaven.  

“Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven”.   

This is an acknowledgement that we want God’s will for us this day to be fulfilled, in the same way that God’s will in heaven is always fulfilled. 

Third,

“give us this day our daily bread and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one.”    

 This section of the Lord’s Prayer is an acknowledgement that it is by God’s provision in our lives that we live and survive.  

It is God who enables us and/or provides the means for us to eat have clothes, work in a job, etc.  It also acknowledges that God can and sometimes will allow us to be led into temptation in order to help develop our character and faith in him more.  Likewise, it acknowledges that temptation by Satan can be cancelled out by God if he desires. 

God the Father is the ultimate authority over all things seen and unseen, known and unknown. 

“Forgive me my debts as I forgive my debtors.”  

This section acknowledges that God expects us to forgive the debts and sins of others against us in the same manner that he has and does forgive us of the sins and debts that we have done against him. 

“For yours is the Kingdom, the glory and the power. Amen”

This section of the “Lord’s Prayer” as an acknowledgement that everything belongs to God. 

• It’s his kingdom. 
• He is the ultimate authority and you can not go any higher than he.
• It acknowledges that all glory belongs to God and he is worthy to receive our glory, praise and adoration of him and his authority. 
• All power belongs to him as well. 
• He is the creator of the universal and all things seen and unseen.
• Because we have a relationship with Jesus Christ and God, and because we pray directly to God, we are able to take the model of the “Lord’s prayer” and adapt it as a template to our own uniqueness as an individual. 

Here is an example of a prayer I might pray during my morning drive to work.   Notice how I use the model Jesus provided customized to my needs. 

• “Father God, I thank you for loving me. 
• You are an awesome God.  
• I thank you for your provision in my life and I ask that you would provide for me again today.  
• Father, I also ask that you would meet and address the needs that I have in my job at work today. 
• I know God that only you have the answers that I need to these problems. 
• I ask that would move on my behalf to accomplish your will in my life today in the same way that your will is established in heaven.  
• God, I ask that you would expose and spring any traps that the enemy has set-up for me today at work or in life in general. 
• I ask that you would lead me out of any temptations that are in front of me and give me the wisdom and discernment I will need to make the right decisions. 
• I ask all of these things in your Son Jesus’ name, because you are my God, my creator and all things are in your hands.  
• Thank you for loving me Father God, and for meeting and addressing my needs today.   Amen”.

You may notice that the flow of my personal pray life often follows the model Jesus gave us.  It was not originally something I decided I would do, it simply became a natural flow in the way that I pray in the mornings on the way to work.  I began simply by praying the actual “Lord’s Prayer” and after a while, a natural prayer based on the model began flowing out of me. 

1.)   Acknowledging who he is.

2.)   Acknowledging that it is his WILL that we want in our life.

3.)   Acknowledging that it is by his provision that our daily needs are supplied and met.

4.)   Acknowledging that we are accountable before God to forgive those who sin against us, who owe us a debt and anyone who we have taken offense of.   The bible implies that if we do not forgive others, he will no longer forgive us.

5.)   Acknowledging God for what he has done, what he is worthy of, and his authority over us. 

Hopefully you’re beginning to realize that God never intended there to be a hard fast rule to how to pray.   Obviously, if you’re praying for someone else and asking God to heal them, you would not prayer exactly the same way.  However, the “Lords Prayer” is a model of prayer that could be adapted into any type of praying, including praying and asking God to heal people.      

 Can We Do Organic?  

A hot topic at the moment within the body of Christ is being called ‘Organic Churches’ which in all essence asks the question, can we do church differently?

For many Christians this is a new idea and new approach, it is something over 20 years old for me now - someone recently called me and my friend Steve a pioneer in this area, since our first organic house church began in the mid to late 1980’s.   As the church, people ask the question can we do church differently and the answer is a resounding yes!  Take a look at some of the writings on the left side of the blog about the organic church and read about both insights and pitfalls Steve and I encountered.

The idea of an Organic Church places the following challenges:

1. Are the churches we have both modern and traditional that meet in warehouses and traditional church buildings getting the job done?
2. Can churches without a traditional senior pastor succeed?
3. Can a church multiple itself without a building and while meeting in homes?
4. Are all the “gifts of the spirit” operating in traditional denominational structured types of environments?
5. Can lay-people (i.e. non-seminary trained people) function in the “gifts of the spirit” within an Organic Church?
6. What is an Organic Church?