Intentions and inclinations.

i believe anyone with a prophetic gift struggles with where God’s word to them ends and their imagination begins and it is hard won wisdom and maturity to sort those things out to do our gifting well. The following is about the struggle at the intersection of our need to feel heard and have value, and giving away our bread to the poor while taking no credit.

Many times my phone rings,

most of the time i hear,

most often i know who it is,

most of the time i answer.

Sometimes my phone rings

i pretend to not hear,

i ignore and don’t answer,

i know i should,

but i don’t.

Oh, big lazy,

Just let it go to voice mail,

i know He’s faithful,

Hopefully

He will leave a message.

Occasionally i merely wish my phone would ring,

i wish it would ring,

really bad.

But the truth is, sometimes it isn’t ringing,

but i answer anyway,

“Hello! How are you?” I pretend.

i’ve gotten good at pretending,

pretending when the phone doesn’t ring,

Indenting a prayer so others will subtly note,

my pretended throne room conversation.

i do it so well, it causes people

to perceive and think,

his phone always rings. Oooo! Excuse me, is that the phone ringing as we speak?

i think others think “Wow!”  i chuckle, and think,

When i see their reactions,

as people see through their own spiritual haze,

in my dreams i hear them say, “Wow, isn’t he amazing?!”

i can sound like i’ve got all to myself,

an incredible connection going on.

A better connection than anyone else, you know

It makes me kind of elite.

The truth is, though sad to say,

the truth is that i like that. i don’t like to like that, but it’s true.

Even worse, i think i need that.

How sad.

Don’t answer the phone,

Don’t pick up if it doesn’t ring.

Just leave it at peace

Even when we wish it would ring,

Really bad.

Our connection is real,

The Caller will call,

He will and we know He does.

But don’t answer the phone

if it didn’t ring.

Don’t pretend the call,

Don’t make a face.

Just so you can say, “He called”

or say, “I heard”

Just so you can say, “I know”.

So i sit here waiting,

Waiting in the hall.

Maybe the phone will ring,

Because i don’t know what to do,

At all.

I actually have a vision,

Which i don’t know how to do.

Maybe the phone will ring,

Waiting for the phone to ring,

i’m sure the phone will ring,

How ’bout you?

i’m Social Porter for Living In His Name Ministries.

John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, He gave His one and only Son, that whosoever believes in Him, shall be saved.” – OR – God sent the world an invitation to come to His house, live and eat at His table, but it is up to us to RSVP (répondez s’il vous plaît, meaning “reply please” or “please respond”). We must RSVP. Respond please.  What a beautiful thing that would be, to eat at God’s table, and live at His house, and all we have to do is respond. That sounds simple to say, “all we have to do”, but the truth is our RSVP is, of course, not just a onetime response, but many responses across the course of a lifetime, in many situations. That is RSVP in an “on and on” motion, as in continuously. The Lord will extend us an invitation to join Him in many adventures, and then He’ll wait for our RSVP. We must RSVP.

i consider it the supreme and highest honor that the King of the Universe has invited me to dine with Him at His house. i’ve wondered out loud, Lord, who gets invited to dinner at your place? How do we get on God’s friend list? It would seem to be a point of believing in Christ, who is the Messiah, and has God-built character, character attributes like “Walk straight, act right, tell the truth; “Don’t hurt your friend, don’t blame your neighbor; “Keep your word even when it costs you, make an honest living, never take a bribe.” There was Abraham in James 2:23 “And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” And he was called the friend of God.” Or there was another fellow, Theophilus, whose name means “friend of God”, which Luke addressed the Gospel of Luke to in Luke 1:3, and Acts 1:1.

Do you believe you are a friend of God? How did that happen? You know, we can’t just go buy God a Hallmark card and mail it to Him to show our appreciation, i think He’d much prefer we give Him our time and attention instead of just dropping a couple dollars on a gift for Him and hope He understands when we say we’re just to busy to visit, but it’s a really nice card. How do you think we get on God’s dinner list? Good question. You know i heard a man say once that when people say they don’t have time to RSVP or even simply take 10 seconds to reply to a text, what they’re really saying is “it isn’t very important to me to RSVP”.

So, here it is again: When Jesus came and got eyelevel with mankind, Who is on God’s ultimate dinner list, as in the last supper? Judas was on the list. Judas was invited to the dinner table of Jesus. Even though there was a very difficult moment when it was revealed who would betray the Christ, Judas was still a part of the 12. Peter was there. He was a rough ol’ fisherman. Tough, testy, made lots of mistakes although he was the only one of the 12 who walked on water with Jesus. He talked when he should have been listening, he was argumentative and even had a problem telling the truth sometimes, but he was on the dinner list of the Son of God. Paul was a murderer and God included him on the dinner list. You might not include yourself because you’re so neurotically obsessed with all that you are not, but God isn’t doing that.

Here’s another invitation from God for us to join Him in His work: John 1:12, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:”. There is a key word in John 1:12 and in John 3:16. For John 1:12 the key word is “receive”, and in John 3:16 the key word is “believe”. To receive Jesus, and to believe Jesus is an action on our part, it is something we do, it is our RSVP to God that we accept His invitation to participate in eternity with Him.

Though there is the initial RSVP required to dine with God, there will be, in our lifetimes, oceans of invitations from God, some to do dynamic things, some to simply grow up and be mature, some to confront, some to accept His comfort when life is at a low ebb. Our RSVP represents our suppleness in the Master’s hand, our willingness to bend and go with God in the sense of being like joints that work together.

i’ve wondered how many people get God’s invitations in their mail, read it, and then set out to re-write it so it says something other than what it does? It wasn’t enough that the invitation simply said, “Come join me for fellowship and conversation. Love you, God”, but we re-write it to say, “I am so impressed with you, therefore I, the Lord am sending you to do amazing things in the earth that will stand as a sign for all others to see your greatness. Come talk to me when you have time. Love you, God.” We invented that and that’s not what His RSVP said. Some of us may simply scratch out a word and write in another, and yet i believe there are others who go so far as to actually reprint the invitation, and then tell others of the “extra-special” invitation they got from God.

We should all know that our Heavenly Father has a way of addressing all our needs, and even the ones of re-written invitations. His main interest though, is that we actually do RSVP. He has plans for each of us, but none of us can enter in to those plans if we don’t RSVP God. RSVP please.

i’m Social Porter with Living In His Name Ministries.

As the sun sets low and evening settles in until morning, the sky is absolutely hypnotic with its midnight blue directly overhead then fading to deep azure, and blazing pink and orange at the horizon. The world’s edge is so brilliant this evening it almost looks like it is on fire. It is my pleasure to witness such visual beauty which God has built into every evening.

i’m Social Porter and this is Outposts and before we get to our topic, here’s a side bar of interest, which is  the idea of “functional and relational boundaries”. Functional boundaries refer to a person’s ability to complete a task, project, or job, and relational boundaries refer to the ability to speak the truth to others with whom we are in relationship with.

Many people have good functional boundaries, but poor relational ones; that is, they can perform tasks at high levels of competence, but they may not be able to tell a friend that they don’t like their chronic lateness. Some people can be absolutely honest with others about their likes and dislikes but are unable to get up for work in the morning. Boundaries are a way to describe our spheres of responsibility, what we are and are not responsible for. How are your boundaries? Do you respect your neighbors’ boundaries or are you a boundary buster, just walking all over folks and don’t even know it?

Our main topic is “What is your armor made of?” The world around us, especially law enforcement and the military, put hundreds of thousands of dollars into research for better armor every year. Yet, there is a part of ourselves for which there is no armor except the armor which God supplies us by way of believing on the name of Jesus and having a relationship with God Almighty. What kind of armor will stand up under the onslaught of darkness, and the fiery darts of the enemy? It’s got to be made of some really a-m-a-z-i-n-g stuff!

From Wikipedia, Personal armor (also known as body armor) involves the whole gambit of protective clothing, designed to absorb and/or deflect slashing, bludgeoning, and penetrating attacks. They were historically used to protect soldiers, whereas today, they are also used to protect various types of police, private citizens, private security guards or bodyguards. There are two types: regular non-plated personal armor, and hard-plate reinforced personal armor, which is used by combat soldiers, police tactical units and hostage rescue teams.

Around 500b.c. the early Celts began using body armor, like chain mail, but the entire idea has come a long way since then. As weapons have advanced so has the need for armor. In early China and Japan armor was made of hardened rhinoceros hide. Amazingly, today’s personal armor has moved far beyond the plate armor worn by European knights and similar plate armor which was worn in one fashion or another by Israel’s army. One example is the well-known story of David and Goliath in 1 Samuel 17, where before David went out and met Goliath, and tried to put himself in array like other soldiers. He wore Saul’s tunic, and tried on the armor only to discover …not the armor, the tunic, nor the sword would work for him. In 1 Samuel 17:39 it says, “for he had not proved it. And David said unto Saul, I cannot go with these; for I have not proved them. And David put them off him.”

Not only did it not fit him, but as far as David was concerned, it was untested, or unproven. In other words, David wasn’t confident in the ability of Saul’s idea of battle dress to protect him – i believe he felt God’s ability to defend him was far superior to any man made armor.

David wisely knew it would probably only serve to get him killed. It may have been suitable to protect Saul because it was made for Saul, but David needed armor made specifically for himself. From this i reckon, and yes i said reckon as in … i have considered and drawn a conclusion… it could be said we each must wear our own armor God has uniquely made us, fitted to us, tested and proven for each of us as individuals. My armor won’t work for you. You must have your own. True, we who are believers get to wear a breastplate of righteousness, but yours is specifically fitted to you and mine is specifically fitted to me. Not only that, but God didn’t supply us armor just so we could polish and posture around in it. He gave us armor for the same reason He gave us His peace: He knew while we live in this world, not only would we need His peace, He also knew we would need personal armor superior to anything man can make.

There are three basic elements comprising the art of war: mobility, firepower, and security. Weapons alone seldom determine the results of battle, particularly when both sides are evenly matched. There are other determining factors in waging a battle, and even winning a war, for example the skill with which strategy and tactics are deployed, the spirit of the commander in directing troops, and how about the precision troops handle their weapons. Let me also add, any warrior who doesn’t believe the weapons of their warfare, offensive and defensive, are effective, is no better than a soldier with a large target on his back. Another good point is that regardless of mobility, weapons, armor, tactics, or firepower, the Bible makes it clear that the most decisive factor in Israel’s success was their obedience to the Lord. Can obedience to God be a type of armor? i say, yes. To you i would say, validate that in scripture, for scripture and the word of the Lord is our bottom line. Remember, TAV, trust and verify. Look it up for yourself, after all, you are responsible for what you believe. Don’t just take my word, or anyone else’s word for it. See it for yourself, that way you will know because you searched it out and God revealed it to you. Make it your own.

We all know we are in a spiritual war… 2 Corinthians 10:3-5, “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” Let’s take just a moment to reinforce that part about thoughts. Friends, if you don’t take your thoughts captive, good and bad alike, they will take you captive, because any way you cut it, one way or another, somebody is going down in chains, and we, being more than conquerors, we are to be the captors, not the captives. If we’re going to be more than conquerors and ultimately overcomers, then there’s got to be some overcoming going on.

What are these weapons and armor Paul speaks of? What can they be made of to withstand the onslaught of our most bitter enemy?

Of course, our first line of defense is prayer. Prayer provides firepower in that it covers us from the attacks launched by the enemy. It makes our assault on the kingdom of darkness more effective. Through prayer the attack of the enemy offensive can be deflected. Not only is prayer a defensive weapon, it is an offensive weapon. James 5:16, “The prayer of a righteous man is a force to be reckoned with and is highly productive.”

i’ll say it again, prayer is like a God-sized deflecting shield and a direct assault of offensive firepower against the kingdom of darkness. Each prayer is like a missile attack launched at the enemy. But what is it in our prayers which makes them so powerful? Is it because i, yes “I”, the great and mighty “me” have spoken magic words that will turn the tide of a battle or conflict? Is it because i, yes “I”, the great and mighty “me” know amazing words of power, and just because i, yes “I” claim something to be true, “it shall be so”, like i am some shaman or magical mystic? Absolutely not. My prayerful offense and defense is due to the Power of Jesus Christ and Christ alone in me. In light of all that, i’ve got another idea: do you want to spend your time wrestling and fighting with the enemy, swinging in the dark, or do you want to spend your time interacting with God? Some folks just seem to be absolutely obsessed with doing battle, and i’ve got to say, all that fighting and doing warfare seems pretty pre-occupying when our real strength is in our focus on Jesus, not being pre-occupied with the devil.

Personally, years ago, i initiated an intercessory offensive upon a principality in such a way God did not ask me to do. Yes, He did ask me to pray, but to directly engage a principality beyond His request to pray was of my own volition. Why would i go beyond God’s simple request to pray? There truly was a need for intercessory prayer, but in my heart, i was arrogant. At the time i thought that i, yes I, “I”, the great and mighty “ME” figured if i declared it so then it would happen as i said. Yep, in the end God pulled my fat out of the fire, but all in all, i paid a terrible price because i wasn’t obedient to the word of the Lord, and i didn’t wear my armor well. i didn’t understand it, and it wasn’t proven. There were even results in the physical realm. My crops failed, the dog died, the cats ran away, something killed every last chicken and 2/3’s of the goats, even one horse died. i lost the entire farm and ended up moving away forever. It was a terrible cost all because “I” decided to go to war in such a way God had NOT asked of me. i do believe that’s called presumptuous disobedience. The Lord, in His mercy, defended me from the worst of things, but all in all, i was out of line, and had taken it upon myself to go toe-to-toe with a principality. i’ve thought back upon those days and also realized, out of my own glaring ignorance, i was trying to put into motion scripture, you know, the part about “whatever i ask in His name He will do”, and “whatever you bind on earth is bound in Heaven (or something like that), etc, etc. i believe God honored me by taking down the principality eventually, but it was because of the Name of Jesus, not because i decided to go to war in all my self-importance. Truthfully, i thought i knew something, but i’ve realized that Francis Chan was right when he said, “whatever you think you know, you don’t”. Those days of many years ago was a time in my life when i learned the value of my armor, the value of being obedient, and the value of the weapons of my warfare. i also learned to spend my time wisely, in other words, spend my time with God instead of fighting with principalities. Don’t you know the enemy of our soul would love to keep us enthralled in a fight, ‘cause as long as we’re embroiled in a fight with darkness, we are not involved with the Lord. It’s sort of like having hands full of throwing stones. If your hands and pockets are full of throwing stones (John 8) that means they are empty of God-things.

i learned my armor, as is described in 1 Thessalonians 5:8, was far more powerful than i could grasp. Again, i didn’t understand the weapons of my warfare, and did not trust my untested armor, gosh, i was so ignorant i didn’t even realize it was untested.

Scripture says, “But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.” Can you see those key words? “Faith”, “Love”, “Hope”. Those are attributes of our God and they are substantial and impervious. Our armor is made of the kinds of stuff which the enemy has no weapon which can penetrate. Faith, hope, and love are only three.

Matthew Henry wrote that in the four gospels, Jesus put on righteousness as a breast-plate in all his proceedings, guaranteeing the defense of his own honor as a breast-plate defends vital organs; and then he put a helmet of salvation upon his head; Jesus was so sure of His work that He took salvation itself for his helmet, which was the impenetrable helmet of God. Righteousness was his coat of arms, and salvation his crest. Because Jesus has it, we can wear it and it is among the pieces of a Christian’s armor that shine and gleam in the light and dark. By the Blood of Jesus we have the breast-plate of righteousness, and for a helmet the hope of salvation, and it is called the armor of God, because he wore it first and so fitted it for us.

Ephesians 6:13-18, “Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.
In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep praying for all the saints.”

Our armor, designed by God, tested and proven by Jesus, is fitted uniquely for each us as individuals, it is unique to you and does not fit another. We can’t lend someone our personal breastplate which defends our heart because each person’s heart is unique, specific to that person, Holy Spirit tailored just for you. We each must wear our own armor.

Your God-given defense is impassable, impermeable, impervious, nontransferable, solid, substantial, and unpierceable. Let me say for greater clarity: We do not take it off when we go to bed at night nor would we ever have a reason to take it off. Romans 13:12 says to put on the armor of light, and Romans 13:14 says to put on Christ. So if you have put on Christ, your armor of light, how would you take off your armor, unless you remove Jesus from your life?  i figure people who say they “forgot to put their armor on” surely have just heard someone else say the phrase, don’t understand what they’ve said, and actually mean they are simply having a hard time. Consider carefully the words of our mouth lest they stick to us.

Why, oh why would anyone want to take it off to begin with? The attributes of the Living God are our defense. Again, anyone who thinks of their armor as something like clothing to be put on and taken off, really does not understand what they’ve got, which really inspires me to think that also, they do not understand the weapons of their warfare. Remember, any warrior who doesn’t believe the weapons of their warfare work and are effective, is no better than an unarmed soldier on a bomb-exploding, bullet flying battle field with a big target on their back and a sign with an arrow pointing to the bulls eye which says, “Aim Here”.

The attributes of God are what our armor is made of. Truth, righteousness, faith, readiness, salvation, and the Word of God. The straps are made of sincerity and passion, the buckles of grace and sanctification, the bracing is of strength and stability. Our feet are shod with preparation and wisdom, with rivets of promise, character, and diligence. We are buffed to a high shine with the polishing salve of favor, grace and goodness – in light of that, we now stand in Christ before the universe, shining like lights on a hill in the deepest night. Stand up and praise Him under the banner of the Lion of Judah, fear not, wear your armor well, and hold the line!

Our armor was created by God, tested and proven by Jesus Himself, and is uniquely made from the attributes of God, able to withstand anything the devil can throw at us, if we’ll simply be willing to trust in what God has done in us. Trusting our armor, ahh, now there’s the deal. First we’ve got to have faith it is really there like God said it is, and then we’ve got to trust God that it is all He says it is. It’s more than just plate steel, it’s made by the Son of God; our armor knows no weakness, and will never fail.

Be at peace, hold the line and do the right thing. It’s always the right time to do the right thing. Until we meet again, Think about it!

When God says “ALL”, He means what He says, All means all and nothing less than all. How often to we re-think God’s “all things” into being most things, some things, and a few things? We often seem to re-think our God of the impossible into the dreary, hazy world of more-or-less and pretty much. Look, just look at all the possibilities open to us who have faith if we’ll simply take the Lord at His word.

Genesis 9:30 “I have given you all things, even as the green herbs.”, or from MSG “All living creatures are yours for food; just as I gave you the plants, now I give you everything else.”

1 Chronicles 29:14 “For all things come from You”

Psalm 8:6 “You have put all things under his feet”

Psalm 148:5 “Let all things praise the name of the Lord,”

Isaiah 44:24 “I am the Lord, who makes all things,”

Job 37:16 “Can you explain why lightning flashes at the orders 16 of God who knows all things?”

Luke 10:22 “All things have been delivered to Me by My Father”

Luke 18:31 “… and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man will be accomplished.”

John 1:3 “And with this Word, God created all things. Nothing was made without the Word.”

John 5:20 “For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself does”

John 14:26 “the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.”

John 16:15 “All things that the Father has are Mine.”

John 18:4 Jesus therefore, knowing all things that would come upon Him”

John 19:28 “Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished”

Acts 3:21 “But Jesus must stay in heaven until God makes all things new”

Romans 11:36 “For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things”

1 Corinthians 2:10 “For the Spirit searches all things”

1 Corinthians 9:12 “but endure all things lest we hinder the gospel of Christ.”

1 Corinthians 13:7, Love… “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

1 Corinthians14:26 “Let all things be done for edification.”

1 Corinthians 14:40 “Let all things be done decently and in order.”

2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”

2 Corinthians 7:14 “But as we spoke all things to you in truth”

2 Corinthians 9:8 “⁸And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.”

Ephesians 1:22 “God has put all things under the power of Christ,”

Ephesians 5:13 “But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light”

Ephesians 5:20 “giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ”

Philippians 2:14 “Do all things without complaining and disputing, ¹⁵that you may become blameless and harmless,”

Philippians 3:8 “Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ”

Philippians 3:21 “according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.”

Philippians 4:12,13 “Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. 13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

Colossians 1:17 “And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.”

Colossians 1:20 “and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven”

1 Thessalonians 5:21 “Test all things; hold fast what is good.”

1 Timothy 4:8 “but godliness is profitable for all things”

1 Timothy 6:17 “in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy”

2 Timothy 2:7 “may the Lord give you understanding in all things”

2 Timothy 4:5 “But you be watchful in all things”

Titus 1:15 “To the pure all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure;”

Titus 2:7 “in all things showing yourself to be a pattern of good works;”

Titus 2:10 “showing all good fidelity, that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things.”

Hebrews 4:13 “And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.”

Hebrews 13:8 “we have a good conscience, in all things desiring to live honorably.”

1 Peter 4:8 “And above all things have fervent love for one another”

1 Peter 4:11 “that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.”

3 John 1:2 “that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.”

As i woke up this morning, my eyes opened as they usually do, thank you Lord, to see the ceiling above my bed. In my house i’m glad their are ceilings. That means there’s a roof defending us from wind, sun, rain, and inclement weather. But then a thought started to drift across my waking mind, like a feather gently being blown along by a breeze. With God i have no use for ceilings in my relationship with Him, but yet in all my walking about, in all my preaching and teaching, in all my praying, i carry ideas of limited options, even though my mouth declares He is God of the impossible.

How often do we come to God’s table of possibilities with ceilings of impossibilities? His endless possibilities are, more often than we think, met with our ceilings of limited options, putting a cap on His open Heaven with all our debilitating lack of faith, unbelief, a heart full of “I doubt its”, and plain old “don’t want to”. Ceilings. Most of us don’t even know we’ve got them.

A ceiling is a boundary, thus far and no further. Like when we get really put out with something or someone we might say, “That’s it! I’ve had it!” Meaning, we’ve hit our limit, or ceiling, and we’re not going to take it anymore.

And there are indeed limits. As example, shoes only walk so far, our lungs can only take in a limited amount of breath at a time, food only keeps just so long, our bodies have an expiration date or there’s a limit on our life span, a motor can only run only so fast before it breaks, tires only have x-amount of estimated miles of wear before they reach their limit, and on and on.

Matthew 19:25-26, “When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, “Who then can be saved?” But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”” Friends, nothing is so dead, God can’t grow life out of it. Selah.

It isn’t possible to know what you don’t know, and we just have to be good with the fact there are a multitude of things we don’t know. Actually, as you’ve probably read, our brain can only retain approximately 15% of all the information in the universe, so that leaves 85% we know nothing about, and nothing means nothing there. In light of that, i have to wonder what brilliant person managed to make that calculation and how did they know how much our brain could retain? Not only that, just because we might possess that 15%, i’ll just bet our level of understanding of it all is in very, very small numbers represented by percentages which are less than one. Even our imagination has a ceiling unless God expands it.

In many situations, limits and ceilings are a good thing, the idea is a kindness, but other times they more represent limiting options. Why do we, often, when presented with the infinite possibilities of God, suddenly decide we need to reason our way out of engaging with Him? It is highly likely it is not the atheist, the agnostic, the infidel, or the people devoted to bringing about a godless society. The problem is not with the world, but within our own ranks. Often the Lord is prevented from doing amazing things in our lives, all because our ceilings don’t allow it. Most times it’s just all more than we can hardly believe. We claim He is God of the impossible, yet we come to Him with all our reasons why He shouldn’t, couldn’t or wouldn’t. Why, always reasoning “why”, but then we rarely seem to conclude it wasn’t God but us with our ceilings of what we figured was possible.

Many people firmly believe God must operate within their idea of church structures, and they must have methods, and walls, and layouts, and especially titles, and hierarchy which are almost as rigidly followed as a military command post. And most astoundingly, those people teach the children that their method is how you do church, always with an underlying, unspoken rule of “do not step off the page”. They cannot see or hear any further than their outline of how things should be done. They say, “this is how it’s done in the Bible” therefore God couldn’t possibly do church any other way. Ceilings.

In Matthew 14 Jesus sent the guys on ahead in a boat. The wind and waves were giving them a really hard time, enough so they were laboring against the weather.  But then, Jesus comes stepping along, walking on the water, and when they saw Him it totally scared the soup out of them. He calmed them down, not the weather, just those in the weather, and then, as usual, Peter had something to say. i’ve re-imagined the conversation at this point. Peter: Lord, if it is really you, i mean really you, if you give the word i’d like to try walking on water too!” From behind him comes a hissing from the other disciples: “Peter! Shut up man! What are you doing? Are you nuts? Can’t you see this boat is rocking out, the wind is howling, and the rain, oh good grief, the rain!” Suddenly Jesus calls to Peter: “Sure! Step out.” Spectacularly, Peter begins to climb out of the boat and the other disciples are grabbing for him a little saying, “Hold up there Pete! For goodness sake man, think! This is not rational!” Another may have said, “Let him go! You know how he is.” And another might say, “Well, the Lord did call to him and it’s better to drown while obeying God than it is to do nothing.” Finally, Peter puts his feet on the water and it feels pretty solid. He gives it a few more steps, walking in the impossiblity of the moment. Suddenly, out of nowhere, he begins to reason within himself, reasoning who did he think he was that he might be like Jesus and walk on water, afterall, pride does go before a fall. He might start remembering the time he charged extra to the widow lady and didn’t feel bad about cheating her just a little bit, seeing himself as unworthy of God’s miraculous. With the wind whistling and rain coming down sideways, he may have began to reason, “others may, but probably not me”, and his faith begins to fade as he begins to sink, and the more he sinks the more his faith fades. In desperation he calls out one of the most powerful prayers in the universe, “Lord help!” Immediately, Jesus grabbed him. Think, now, i don’t know it, but i’d bet they walked back, together, and climbed in the boat, so it’s not like Jesus dragged him through the water because Peter had the nerve to believe in the impossible. Jesus welcomed and even encouraged Peter’s effort to reach past his doubt and unbelief, past his self-manufactured ceilings of possibilities and get out of the boat with Jesus. At first Peter had no limiting options, but the farther he walked towards the Lord, walking in the impossible, the more his self-defined limiting options began to overwhelm his faith. So, think….

With God we have no use for ceilings in our relationship with Him, but yet in all our walking about, in all our preaching and teaching, in all our praying, we carry unrecognized ideas of limited options, even though our mouth declares He is the God of the impossible.

How often do we come to God’s table of possibilities with ceilings? Do we ever ask the Lord to raise our ceilings? His endless possibilities are, more often than we think, met with our ceilings of limited options, putting a cap on His open Heaven with all our debilitating lack of faith, unbelief, a heart full of “I doubt it”, and just plain old “don’t want to”. Ceilings.

What do you think?

i’m Social Porter with Living In His Name Ministries.