Longing For The Heavenly Country

 
I just got back from seeing the Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader. The movie was really good and I do indeed recommend that you see it if you have a chance. But it was the final scene, at the end of the world of Narnia-the beginning of Aslan's Country, that really tugged on my heart. I won't give away any details for those who haven't seen it but, let it suffice to say, it left an ache in me to go Home. It also reignited a fire in me to devote all I have to getting myself and others ready for this Country. This world has nothing for me. How I long to be with my Lord and my friend. I echo Paul's heart as he says in Phil. 1:23-24, "I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body." I want to go Home. I am starting to feel the ache. But it is being matched by an ache as I see a world of brokenness, filled with people who, as of now, will never see this great Land. I want to see them all there with me. I am torn. My heart hurts. I think it's good though, or at least, necessary.

Praise God today for the birth of the Gate into this heavenly country.

"All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one" (Heb. 11:13-16)

A few songs to listen to about this:
Soul Cry by Misty Edwards
Faithful To the End by Cory Asbury
Worth It All by Laura Hackett

To Clearify...

I feel like since some who read this i don't know or don't see often, I should clarify just so everyone who reads knows where I am coming from. In regards to the previous post, I am not one of those people who is against, having a house, full-time job, a car, or going to college, etc...But the question I am asking is why? It all comes down to your motives for doing or having anything. Why are you going to college? Is it because that is what everyone does and thus you assume you should too? Or is because you feel God calling you there? If you have a house is it just for you? Or do you have a house so that you can house others, take people in who don't have much, host times of fellowship and worship for the body? Or a car so that you can share it with others? Do you have a full-time job? Why? Is it out of obedience so you can support others who God has not called into full-time jobs, missionaries, the homeless,etc.. or because you need money to buy stuff to live comfortably yourself and collect more stuff over time and stock pile resource in a 'barn'. "Stuff" isn't bad, in and of itself but...

The bottom line is, we are blessed to be a blessing.

Everything we have we are given by God, not to horde but to distribute, to bless others. Learn to live with open hands.(See past blog entitled, "Economy of the Kingdom" for more on this idea.)

Fear is a big reason most people don't open up there homes or give freely of what they have. Fear of getting a bit uncomfortable. Fear of what others will think if they see a homeless person living in their nice beautiful home. Fear that it could be risky to let others use their car...what if they crash it? Fear that they may not have enough if they keep giving away and thus turn inward and have a 'fend for yourself' attitude while Jesus only had a 'fend for others' attitude. Fear that it could put your kids in jeopardy...but even your kids are not your own. They are just on loan from God. Stop thinking that you own anything!

The list could go on and on. But here is where intimacy with Jesus is so important to have saturating your life through prayer, worship, fellowship, Bible, etc...

The closer you get to Jesus the less fear you will have, because Jesus is Perfect Love...

...and Perfect Love casts out fear.(1 John 4:18)

Reverse the Rivers Flow: Revival and Reformation

At a prayer house in Grand Rapids on Thursday, a group of us were discussing our desire to live every moment for Christ and to bring his kingdom every place we went. Then one of us commented that it was great that we had this passion but how come it is so hard to carry this out long term in our lives. We will have bursts of zeal and passion but then just end up going back to 'life as usual'. As we were thinking about that another of us gave this image of a rushing river. As long as you are going with the flow of the river it is very easy because the river carries you. But if you had the audacity to try to go against the flow of the river that force of water would all but sweep you away. We realized that the river we were fighting against was the culture that we grew up in. The 'way things have always been' kind of mentality. Things like getting a job to by a house, a few cars, a vacation or two a year, the latest gadget, etc... The kind of stuff that when you question why we do what we do it gets people uncomfortable because this is what they have been taught their who lives. This is what a person does. They finish high school, if they are lucky get a college degree and maybe a Masters degree, then get a job to pay off debt, get a wife some where along the way and then settle down and do the 9-5 to make money to get more stuff and support your family in a comfortable life-style, etc...Basically, the American Dream....and unfortunately those in the church are caught in the same flow and most don't even know it. The river has been rushing for a long time building up strength and speed and to go against it you have decades of culture pushing against you. Sometimes we think just by turning around against the rivers flow and bracing ourselves, arms outstretched with zeal, will change the course of the river of our time and culture, but in our fading strength we will eventually be swept back into the 'norms' of society.



So what can we do? The apostles "turned the world upside-down" (Acts 17:6) just by devoting themselves to the "apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers." (Acts 2:42) This is not for the spiritually elite. We are ordinary broken people just like they were. But Jesus said to them and to us, "Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father." (John 14:12)

We will do greater things than Jesus! What a promise!

So how can we reverse the flow of this mighty river of our culture? How can we "turn it upside-down"? We can't. But the one who is in us can! Thus, our only hope is a supernatural one. I believe that the only thing that can the turn a mighty river of our time around (or tell a mountain to be thrown in the sea, for that matter) is prayer and worship that we pour out on God, and as we pour out on him, he pours back on us his supernatural love for him and for people that keeps us praying and worshiping, and then drives us out to the street to be his hands and feet.  
Prayer: Crying out to our God for mercy and interceding on behalf of our family, church, city, nation, or world. (This is not all prayer is by the way, just some examples)
Worship: Psalm 22:3 says, "Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel". God inhabits the place of our praise. As we send worship up, he sends his presence down and his presence drives back the darkness!


This is nothing new. Intimacy with Jesus drives people out in love to be his hands and feet. Basically, Love God and you won't be able to help but love people. 

Let me be clear.
I am not for rebellion. But what I am for is revival and reformation*.

Rebellion is birthed out of anger and hatred. 
Reformation and revival is birthed out of love and compassion.

We don't turn around the river in anger, but out of a love and compassion for the people caught in it's flow. As God uses us to pour out his love on people, people fall in love with God and then they start to become conformed to his image and are slowly turned around and start joining the others praying to turn the flow around! It is all about love. God's love not human love. God's love hates evil and clings to what is good. (Rom. 12:9)

Isaiah 2:2 says, "It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it,  and many peoples shall come, and say: "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,  to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.""

Last time I checked, nothing flowed up hill. But in this passage it says that the nations were going to! The natural flow of a river is down from the mountain. This flow is strong and can't be stopped (easily), but to turn the flow around...impossible..yet nothing is impossible for God. A flow up a mountain is supernatural. It is a supernatural thing for the LORD to draw us to himself! Thus, to change the flow of the river of culture we need a supernatural solution...and that's where prayer and worship come in! Prayer and worship, basically, intimacy with Jesus, is both to be done individually and corporately. I believe that as communities of people who are tired of the status quo and who want to see the kingdom come saturate our way of life start to pray and worship, we will start to see whole cities transform. In fact, it is already happening all over the world! (See books: Red Moon Rising, Fire & Fragrance, or God on Campus for lots of stories)

* Revival and reformation in the form of a change of way of life toward God within a group of people or people group that has long term, lasting fruit in the day to day experience. Not just an event whose fruit stops after the event stops. (Please also not I am not against event-type revivals or emotions. I do believe the Spirit can and does just 'drop' on events from time to time in some powerful felt ways. I just want to see lasting fruit, people bearing fruit in keeping with repentance.          (Matt. 3:8))

Two great song on my heart while writing this: 
Revival by Robin Mark
Likeness of Jesus by Jonathan David Helser

Heaven and Earth (Part III)

In between west and east, heaven and earth.

The fullness of heaven and earth came together in the man Christ Jesus and culminated on the cross.

  Heaven                         Earth
Fully God                      Fully Man
Born of Spirit                Born of Flesh

There were also 2 times in life where Jesus was literally suspended between heaven and earth.
1) In the womb.
2) On the cross

Both are places of birth for us. We are physically born from the womb (with the head coming out first followed by the body) and we are born again from the cross (with the 'head' Jesus, coming first and the 'body' us, following)

Once born again we remain in this tension, living our lives in between heaven and earth.

"But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us...raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Eph. 2:4-6)

This verb tense in the Greek for the word 'seated' is in the aorist active tense which is used to specify a past event that has ongoing implications.

If you are in Christ and Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father, then where are you?...Right now?

Right now, we are seated in Christ at the right hand of the Father. When are born again (whether over time or in a moment) we get caught up into eternity. Jesus' reality and experience becomes ours. That is why it can be said by Paul in Galatians 2:20 that "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me". When Jesus died on that cross, we were in him! It is really OK if this is beyond what you can imagine. His ways are higher than our ways and he often gives us more than we can ask or imagine!

We are both here on the earth in time and space AND seated in Christ outside of time and space!

In between heaven and earth.

We are the temple of God and his throne is in the midst of his temple. (Ezk. 43) His throne is in heaven. So are we.  But we are also his temple here on the earth!

God uses us to be priests, mediators of his kingdom. We pray that his kingdom would come on earth as it is in heaven, then Jesus uses us (his hands and feet) to carry it out!

We can even feel this tension, this conflict between the domain of darkness and the kingdom of his beloved Son (Col. 1:13), within ourselves. Paul writes about this in Rom. 7:21-24:
"So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?"

Praise God he has already told us who will rescue us in the next verse!
"Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!"

There is a battle raging even though the battle has already been won.

We are called to be warrior priests with our 'tents pitched' in between:
                                 
                                     West and East
                                     Bethel and Ai
                                  Heaven and Earth