Romans 1:18-21, “For the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.”

God is not hidden and we are still hiding. From the days of Genesis when Adam and Eve hid themselves in the garden because of sin, even though man was hiding from God, God was not hiding from man. His works are visible for anyone who is interested in seeing them, literally, His fingerprints are all over everything.

There is no excuse for not believing in God. He has clearly revealed Himself to the world and to each individual’s conscience, c’mon, His fingerprints are all over everything. Just looking up at the stars at night should convince anyone there is a Creator. In addition, i believe all people know deep inside themselves that there is a God, and everyone is born with a sense of right and wrong. Fly to the corners of the world, God-lovers and God-haters alike, agree stealing is wrong, lying is wrong, adultery is wrong, betrayal is wrong, and especially, when it happens to them. Where did they get that idea of right and wrong? We can’t know what a curved line is unless we first have an idea of a straight line. However, i seems people suppress the truth because they don’t want to believe. A man told me once that “for God to exist, He must meet standards.” (chuckle) He really felt his standards could be high enough to define God. i figure, essentially, what he was saying was, “He must prove Himself according to MY standards.” The Lord is everlasting, does not depend on anyone or thing, nor is He required to meet someone’s standards in order to exist. If the Lord were enslaved and duty-bound to meet with mankind’s requirements, then He wouldn’t hardly be all powerful, and independent, He would be just another god, little “G”, in a sea of man-made gods that would be subject and dependent upon the whim of man to exist. ….and to me, that would be just stupid. So why not believe in God, it’s certainly easier than believing in whirling atoms coming to agreement to, not only get together and create something, but to be intelligent and wise enough to add infinitely deep concepts like, love, hate, responsibility, friendship, blue skies, rain, and all the myriad of physical and non-physical things of existence. Why not believe in God?

i believe a generalized “Don’t want to” is at the core of the matter, a heart full of “don’t want to”. Believing would put unbelievers face-to-face with themselves, their wrongness-of-character, rebellion, and their need to come back to God could be more than most are willing to bear. It appears it’s just too close, and too honest. Maybe the need for Christ isn’t acute enough ….yet.

Therefore, they deny the facts of God’s existence and play little mental games, trying to rationalize away the truth. Because of this, God’s solid boundary against all ungodliness and unrighteousness is revealed from Heaven and is set with unmoveable determination by the hand of God Himself. To unbelief, He said, “thus far and no more….you will not bring sin, evil, and unbelief into my house.”

The Lord is the God of truth. The God of the Bible is not a god of myth or legend. Jesus Christ is The Truth. He is the ultimate reality; He is what is really real in the universe, in a world full of deception and lies. Likewise, the Bible is not just some made-up book of religious fantasy; rather it is true spiritually, historically, and scientifically.

God is not hidden. We are. We were hiding in the garden of Eden, and we are still hiding today. The Lord is bidding us to come out of hiding, to humble ourselves and be honest, to throw open the doors of our heart and tear down our fences. What is up with all our resentment and jealousy anyway? Christ is visible and willing to forgive us all our darkest secrets, we’ve simply go to be willing to come out of our hiding places. Come out, come out, where ever you are. God is calling you to come home!

Jesus, You did it! You changed my regret and overwhelming sorrow, You ripped off my black mourning band.

You didn’t leave.

You gave me room to breathe.

Jesus pulled me out of the ditch, pulled me from deep mud and sent me leaping and whirling, abandoning myself to His love. When i was mobbed by my sins and they were piled up, stinking, and defiling, far past counting, when i was living on a diet of tears, God intervened and made me a poem to Himself.

Who is God? Let’s speak of His invisible attributes: God does not procrastinate; not statistical numbers or written words can properly account for Him. God intervenes. He is really really good at being God and does not quit. His love is absolutely relentless. God is gracious and kind, He loves us all day and sings us songs all night; He clears the name of those who believe in Him. He gives those who love Him His lantern and compass, He makes us a map then gives us wisdom and understanding to follow it with. God’s promises are always, always, always, and yes, yes, yes.

Many years ago, when i was in deep trouble, i k new there was only one place to go: to God. What is it worth to us to be right with God? When all my friends who had promised no matter what, they would be there for me, when they were gone, and i wished i was gone too, God intervened. When i was out of ideas, when i was out of imagination, when i was out of dreams and had come to my end, God intervened. At that time of my life i had no clue where to go, what to do, what to say, or how to act anymore. i had not an inkling of an idea of what to expect or what should happen next. Then Jesus stepped in! When i was in a head-lock of sin, then Jesus tagged in, cut the legs out from under my bondage, and took it down for the pin. i thought it was the end of the line for me, but God stepped in, once again, to resolve my internal and spiritual conflict.

So, does God intervene in the affairs of the world? If so, are there any undeniable examples of this divine intervention? Has God left any fingerprints on His handiwork?

i believe we can confidently point to many examples of God’s intervention. Everything from the defeat of the Spanish Armada to the existence of modern-day Israel as proof that God has intervened in history. Of course, there are also the miracles of the Bible, recorded by eyewitnesses to the events, and creation itself. Of course, on the hyper-spiritualized side of this, there are believers who think everything is God’s intervention, like a good parking spot being open is seen clearly as a miracle from God. A sudden gust of wind or the chance meeting of a friend is clearly a sign from God to move in a different direction. Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. While this mindset is more biblical than the approach a determined nay-sayer might take, it does pose some potentially serious problems. Interpreting virtually everything as divine intervention can lead to very subjective conclusions. Many times, when we’re at the end of our rope, you’ve gotta admit, we do tend to read into things what we want. It is tempting to study cloud shapes to find “proof” for what we want God’s will to be instead of truly seeking God’s will in a biblical manner

But back to the topic, i believe God intervenes in the lives of every living thing on earth, whether they believe it or not, or appreciate it or not. If God did not intervene in some fashion, i believe life would immediately digress to destruction, and come to a state of nil in a heartbeat. Genesis 20:1-18 is a good example where Abraham was disobedient and God intervened on his behalf when he sought the Lord for help. God intervenes on behalf of even unbelievers, for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son…even when mankind didn’t believe in God or hold His love as valuable, God intervened and made salvation available for any who would repent and call on His Name.

God intervenes! He is the Chief Interventionist and is willing to cancel your death sentence. Consider His love carefully, your very life is at stake.

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

i visit the jail often, often enough over the last years to see patterns among those incarcerated. Most who are incarcerated are not only physically imprisoned, but also mental and spiritual prisoners too, many times, if not most times, in a prison of their own making.

How did they become those people, twisted thinkers, irresponsible with habits of consistently choosing poorly, and not regretting those choices until after they are running and gunning again with the blue lights of law enforcement outside their door?

i know a man who wrote a book which many inmates read… they, the inmates think it was written just for them, and partly it was, but initially, while the man was pastoring a church, the book was also written for his congregation, whom he realized had the same stinking thinking going on as those incarcerated… it’s just that the ones in jail got caught, and the ones in the congregation were still operating in their twisted thinking, not, as of yet, apprehended, neither had it even entered their mind that they were being hindered in their relationship with the Lord by way of their own thinking.

How do we get there? i mean, think about it, no one wakes up one morning and thinks to themselves, “Today is the day i’m going to begin my criminal career.” At least i don’t think so. i doubt people make the decision, on the spur of the moment, to be a drug addict; i don’t believe anyone decides to make a career of sin while drinking a little coffee in the morning and reading the paper, or makes the life decision to not be responsible and accountable for their actions, ignoring who they wound, gleefully going on deflecting any challenges as to their distinct lack of honesty… it’s extremely remote that any of us wake up one day and decides that stuff.

i’m Social Porter and this is Outposts, cool jazz and contemplative conversation, coming to you semi-live from the late evening cascading banks of the Ockluhwahhah River, where the trees gently lean over the rivers edge, and every evening is pleasant. i’ve got the lawn chairs set up, coffee is on, God’s handy work of another glowing evening is visible at the horizon… just sitting here, waiting for you to come sit with me a while. We’ll talk and sing, like we might if we were sitting around the Crystal Sea, talking and laughing, reminiscing about the times in our lives about when the Lord did this, and when He said that. Peace my friends, be at peace, you don’t have to cry anymore… those days are done… and you don’t have to cry anymore. Because of Jesus, our wounds don’t need to dictate our actions any longer… being free, we are no longer slaves, and you are not a slave to the sad history of life. We don’t have to cry any more.

Drip by drip, the world and it’s ways influence our lives. Like water dripping on a stone, over time, if allowed to continue to drip, the stone eventually yields to the persistent dripping of water becoming reshaped into something other than what it would normally be. Drip, drip, drip, drip. It is so subtle sometimes we just don’t notice, but it is there. Like watching the tide go out or come in, it is so subtle we only notice when a sizeable difference is evident, only then do we think to ourselves, “Oh, look, the tide has changed.”

Drip by drip, criminal thinking is achieved with all its irresponsibility, unaccountability, and living in a dream where it’s a habit to blow past our actions, and then, neglecting honesty, many tend to hyper-spiritualize things so they, still don’t have to be accountable. Once we are far from shore, no longer tethered to the security of the dock, we wake up and wonder, “How did i get way over here?” Drip, drip, drip. The drip of the world seeps into our thinking and we slowly ebb away only to find ourselves at a very uncomfortable distance from God.

God has found us out, we are not all we thought we were, and we are all God knew we were. Isaiah 46:10 says that the Lord declares the end from the beginning, which means from the beginning He has declared the end. i heard someone say God controls history from the future. i think that is absolutely correct. Before the beginning He knew we would need a savior… before the beginning, the character of the cross was worked in the heart of the Father, so at the appointed time, Jesus, the Christ of God would come to us, get eye level with mankind, allow Himself to suffer and be crucified, and be raised from the dead to rescue the object of His affection.

The Lord was not ignorant that we would be subject to the persistent drip of the world, in all its unbelief, in all its self-declaration, and all it’s destructive and hurtful ways. For those who are no longer slaves, we have shelter from the constant drip on our heads from the world and all its God-excluding habits.

The Lord is far, far kinder and more merciful toward our weaknesses than most of us give Him credit for. Psalm 103:13-14 “As a father pities his children, so the LORD pities those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust“.     He understands our human frailty or susceptibility to worldly ideas completely and so pities us like a loving father toward his children. Now, that doesn’t mean we are suddenly off the hook for our actions and attitudes, absolutely not, and there is indeed a difference between the redeemed and those who are not. Romans 6:14-15, “For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? Absolutely not!”

Being free in Christ doesn’t mean we can do whatever we want without the repercussions of our actions, but more we are free to do the right thing as often as we want. When we were slaves, we had no strength against sin, even when we wanted to resist. Paul mentions in Romans 6:12 that if sin rules in our mortal body, then we are subject to be made to obey it’s passions. Yet in all our messiness, God truly understands us, and because of the passion of Jesus, we who believe in Him are free to obey righteousness over sin.

When a child is first learning to eat, a good parent doesn’t stand over the toddler and scream, “You stupid child! I expected more out of you than that. You should be successfully using a knife, fork, and spoon by now, and not smearing food in your hair with your hands and spilling stuff everywhere!”. (Chuckle) No, the parent knows the child’s weakness, and so has no such delusions about their abilities. So, a good parent will simply pick the child up, clean them off, and try again, even though sometimes they may envision themselves just driving into the distance alone. The Lord never leaves us behind, perfectly understands our weaknesses, and wants to help us overcome.

He understands because He created us. You know, every inventor i’ve ever known has a pretty good idea of how their invention works, having been the very person who dreamed it up and put it together. In a more profound manner, the Lord has total knowledge of all the inner workings of every human being, and is not so offended He abandons us. In Psalm 139:13-15, David wrote, “You have formed my inward parts; you have covered me in my mother’s womb… My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth“.

           2 Corinthians 2:11, “… so that we would not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs.”

We forgive others because the Lord forgives us. We forgive others so we are not chained to them in circumstances. Another reason is because we know to hold forgiveness over someone’s head can be a crushing weight… if that is you, deal with it and be done… God does not hold forgiveness over our head, saying, “If you’ll get this next part right, maybe i’ll forgive your sins” which would be back to a retributive theology which says, do good get good, do bad get bad… that is not love. God is faithful to forgive us our sins when we ask and He doesn’t hold our ability to perform over us as a condition of our forgiveness, that’s called holding someone hostage which is not the heart of God.

Leaven in dough is a creeping thing. It doesn’t happen all at once, and once it starts, it doesn’t stop until the whole lump is leavened.

Mark 8:15, “Then He charged them, saying, “Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.””

The leaven of the Pharisees is the law, which says if you get it all right then you’ll be ok, but you won’t… within ourselves, how often are we making a list, checking it twice, always measuring if we’re naughty or nice. 1Cor15:56 says that the law is the strength of sin.

The leaven of Herod is being in the grip of getting more… more money, more recognition, more personal achievement, more prestige, more power, more authority… just… more. That would be like the drip of the world, at first, it may be just a little drip here, and a little drip there. One or two drips are one thing, but the continual drip into our lives from advertising, television, the news and media persuades us away from God. i marvel at the continual drip of the idea that we don’t need God which is constantly presented to us by science, our educational system, government, and the media. Hmmm… i wonder who’s driving their train?

As example, a well-loved international magazine which always has the most amazing photographs and has been in business for almost 100 years is constantly presenting evolution as the truth on the front page, but when you actually read the article it is filled with words like “maybe”, “possibly”, and “we believe it could be”, which are not words of certainty… the article is typically presenting possibilities, but the magazine editors constantly present evolution to us as the truth. Drip, drip, drip.

Matthew 13:33, “Another parable He spoke to them: “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till it was all leavened.“”

Obviously, that means with Jesus in your life, He works to perfect you, to make you more than you ever thought possible… for you to know that you are more than just a low down sinner. He works, pursues, calls, and loves you into surrender, from glory to glory.

Ovid, who’s poetry greatly influenced western art and literature said, ““Dripping water hollows out stone, not through force but through persistence.”

Evidently, there’s two types of leaven, there’s the leaven of the world, and the leaven of the Lord. One wears you down to hell, and the other lifts you up to Heaven. Both are persistent, both endure to the end, both represent a pervasive influence that modifies and transforms… Matthew 12:30, “He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad.”  We can’t have both types in the same lump of dough…so either we are leavened toward Heaven, or leavened toward hell, in the same way we can’t be a saint AND a sinner at the same time… is you is or is you ain’t. Now there’s something to get down into our heads.

           The constant drip of the persuasion of the world inspires us toward wrong conclusions about ourselves and the world around us. The slow advancement of worldly corruption impinged upon us inspires young men and women to have serious self-centered and self-image problems… so much so that 70.4% of suicides which succeed are male, yet only 22.6% of women succeed. Women fail to take their own lives 77.4% of the time, men succeed 70.4% of the time. Be on guard my friends, the rotting stench of darkness looks to creep into our thinking, persuading our lives. Take Jesus as your shield.

True story: A mother had a nagging thing going on in the back of her head that something was going on with her son. He seemed successful at his job, made good money, his bosses seemed to have high hopes for his future promotions. But recently, he had stopped talking to her, stopped calling, and only yesterday had said he was taking a break from talking to anyone for a while. That afternoon, being worried as she was, she went to his house, went inside and called his name….no answer. She went upstairs to the bathroom, and there in a tub of cold water was her son with no breath in his body. Written on the mirror, it said, “I am sorry. I am just so tired of trying to be perfect.” His high pressure bosses at work were sad for a couple minutes, then they set about to hire someone else. The drip on our heads of the influence of the world invades our thinking and we desperately need protection.

i fully believe there is nothing wrong with someone telling their story about all the past badness in their lives, as long as they don’t linger, almost gloriously, on the darkness of it all… it is MORE important to tell the redemptive story of Jesus in their lives, how God delivered them and set their feet on solid ground. Jesus is the focus not the badness of our past. i believe it would be a brutal thing to only tell of sad things and not point out the goodness of God which drips like refreshing rain on us. Once we have seen the goodness of the Lord, the downward spiral of the world becomes more apparent.

The Lord is the absolute master of contrasts and comparisons, He constantly is revealing to us the contrast of Himself with the world. The leaven of the Lord pulls us up, the leaven of the world spirals us down; the leaven of the Lord says be free, the leaven of the world says you are a slave forever so don’t even try; the Lord says love endures forever, the leaven of the world convinces us love is only for a night; the Lord says Jesus is sufficient and in Him you are sufficient, the leaven of the world says you will never be good enough so sit down slave!; the love of God improves all it touches, the leaven of the world degrades us then throws us away like trash; the leaven of the world inspires us to loosen our belt of truth, the causation of the Lord inspires us to higher honesty and to own the truth; the steady drip of the world deteriorates all things to rotting and defilement, the steady drip of the Lord makes all things beautiful as a gift to lovers; the Kingdom of Heaven is like leaven that is life giving, the leaven of the self-inclusive world system is only death dealing.

The drip of the world wears us down like water dripping on a stone, wearing us down if it is allowed to continuously do its work. If people receive Christ, putting on the breastplate of faith and love and wearing the helmet of hope of salvation as the defense against the world’s persuasion, the wearing down drip of the world will be deterred. 1 Timothy 6:10-12, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs. But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.”

The leaven of the world sees transgressing and lying against the LORD as normal, necessary behavior, subtly persuading us to depart from our God, the Kingdom of Heaven says it is good for us to draw near to God and say I have put my trust in the Lord GOD, that I may declare all His works; the world teaches us how to dream up and speak from our heart words of dishonesty and deceit, and that doing injustice is a good idea in order to further our personal agenda, whereas the entire basic theme of 1John is to hold fast to truth, love, and obedience with an additional focus on what Godly hospitality is all about. The drip of the world upon us teaches us from an early age that secretly thinking you’re better than everyone else is good for your mental health, God is persistent to teach us to let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than themselves, not looking to only our own interests, but also for the interests of others.

i need, not just want, but need You Jesus. i need, not just want, but neeeeed Your strength, mercy and love. Let righteousness draw near to my heart, and that i would have the passion and zeal to be bold and loop my arm under the arm of truth which has fallen in the street, helping truth to its feet, encouraging honesty and integrity to enter every heart, home, city, state, and nation. Because of You Jesus, peace, which we had not known before, now we know…drawing all things into right perspective. By your peace our crooked paths are made straight, righteousness overtakes us in the heat of the day, our souls rejoice and sing of your glorious light, we have brightness on our path. We no longer grope for the wall like the blind any longer, but now we have eyes to see, nor do we stumble at noonday or in the twilight. You Lord, make us alive and animated, even though we walk through desolate places, we are firm in our trust in You and are not moved from our station. We lift up your name and you draw all men unto Yourself, even those who growl like bears and moan sadly like doves for grief, and loneliness, by your blood and redemption, i am no longer that person. You do not know my wrongness of character any longer, and truly, the buck stops with you. Regardless of what men say, all things come to rest at the feet of Jesus, and Your decision is the final word. i need you Jesus, not just want, but neeeed you Jesus, i need your support for in the leaven of the world, i’m weak as water….You build me up, unlike the world which delights in tearing me down, you make me firm and steadfast in a world of mobile boundaries and fuzzy morals, i am permanent and quiet, moral and true, made to be of long continuance, faithful and loyal like You. i am inspired to speak, i no longer hold my peace therefore my tongue does not cleave to the roof of my mouth, neither does the spirit of fear cause all my bones to shake.

The constant drip of the rain of Heaven can rehydrate even the driest heart, the most distant dream, and the faintest hope. He is even able to dry up the most grievous tears, and the saddest soul.

Psalm 68:8, “The earth shook; The heavens also dropped rain at the presence of God; Sinai itself was moved at the presence of God, the God of Israel.” Put on Christ who defends us from the subtle dripping upon our heads from the world. It is good to wear the armor of God! Think about it.

           Every day, the world in all it’s self-inclusive, God excluding ways tries to seep into our thinking. There are many who have become persuaded, over time, to allow a little leaven of the world in their lives. They don’t seem to mind wearing the belt of truth a little loose, their breastplate of righteousness is tarnished from lack of attention, and readiness is not as important as it used to be. They look more like faded glory, than ready soldiers for the Lord. The Chinese water torture is a process in which water is slowly dripped onto a person’s forehead, allegedly driving the restrained victim insane. If we allow ourselves to be restrained by the world’s conduct and conscience, and the values of the world are constantly allowed to drip onto our heads, we will find ourselves increasingly indifferent to the very person, Jesus, who died from our sins that we would be free. The subtle influence of violent television, the subtle influence of an immoral society, the subtle and persistent influence of cultural unbelief, pointlessness, and hopelessness (which is despair), overtime, creates people who see no good reason to be honest, to love the truth, to exercise kindness, and courage.

But Jesus, yes Jesus came to not only set us free from those things, He also empowered us to not only resist, but to actually win against grief and despair that we don’t have to sit in a dark corner and cry anymore, we can win by sitting under God’s umbrella of protection. Romans 6:8-11, “Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”

We, who are in Christ, are dead to the insidious, steady drip on our heads from the world, we live under the shelter of the Almighty. Psalm 143:9, “Deliver me, O LORD, from my enemies; In You I take shelter.” and Joel 3:16, “The heavens and earth will shake; But the LORD will be a shelter for His people…”

i’m Social Porter and this has been Outposts, right next door to Trinity Bakers, that’s right, Trinity Bakers where there’s always something good in the oven.

Psalm 91:1, “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.”

We do not have to sit under the invasive drip of this world which persuades exposed minds and hearts toward criminal thinking. The Lord has already won the battle, we are more than conqueror’s because Jesus is more than a conqueror, we don’t have to sit and cry anymore. Amen!

        There, at the end of my pencil point were letters and words, notes to myself and pictures of visions i had made to remind myself of what the Lord was saying or showing me. It was a very small intersection… there… where the point of the pencil met the paper, it was such a very small intersection yet it was the visible manifestation of what was happening in my head and heart, in all its rightness or wrongness, for better or worse. Sometimes it was just me being glad “out loud”, complaining “out loud”, being sad “out loud”, praying “out loud”… believe it or not, that little point on the end of the pencil has volume, time, and even rhythm.

At the point of my pencil was me making history, and highly likely it was only the Lord and myself who could see, forever… probably being the ONLY ones to see, but it was there, on the page never the less.

As the ideas unfolded, page after page, my eyes begin to see patterns to what God was getting at. But what, i often posed to myself, what exactly was the Lord getting at?

i loved the pictures i drew of a house as seen from the street… all neat with its clipped hedges, trimmed yard, manicured flower beds, swept driveway, freshly Windex’d storm door glass, and front porch chairs posed to look inviting… the fence line was even and the gate latched with pristine precision so as to not be too high or low, not too lose and not too tight. It was all just right. The lamps, as seen from the street through the windows were perfectly posed to give the appearance of home, peace, and tranquility.

That… vision… is how most of us hope or wish our houses look and it’s also how we hope and wish our calling was. i’m pretty sure everyone desires that when anyone drives by, looking at the front of our house, they’ll get the impression that the people who live there are as together as the outside of the house. It’s how most of us would like very much to appear to the world around us. As i thought about all that, the Lord posed me a question: “It’s a pretty picture, but is that really where you live and who you are?”

i’m Social Porter and this is Outposts. Right before the Stone Bridge, take a left, past the long fields of grace, you’ll see the river on the right and big trees beyond the river banks… at the end is a cafe’, beautiful for situation whose patrons are often shining lights full of righteous character.

What is in your backyard, and noooooo, i don’t mean your physical one necessarily, well, maybe a little, but the one which is unseen and unspoken of? God is interested in our entire life, including what grows in our hearts where no one can see but Him.

i believe everyone has the potential for a beautiful backyard, even the worst of us. i say let us allow people in our backyards to see the green shoots of grace which grow there, not being afraid any longer of what might be seen or what others might think when they do see what’s back there….it is a call to everyone who is a believer.

Over many years of trying to think of “Who am i in the Kingdom of God and what do i do,” after personally interviewing many, many people, i’ve come to the conclusion that most of us really don’t know how to describe ourselves, nor do we know much about what we do.

It was mentioned in the last program that because most of us can’t quite place ourselves in a “church-recognized and religiously sanctioned” function, somehow we think we are less….do you know what i mean? It bears saying again, just because you have a different calling doesn’t mean you have a lesser calling.

One day about 6 years ago, i was sitting with a friend, both being between appointments, eating our lunch and revelating a bit. He asked me, “Who do you think you are in the Kingdom of God?” Instantly, through my mind went a string of rebukes, commands to don’t even go there, “stop thinking these things”, and a strong sense that if i answered in a positive manner i would be proud and arrogant, and you know, “pride goes before a fall”… watch out! Be careful! Just – Don’t! My heart was filled with such conflict i couldn’t hardly answer. He noticed my sputtering and halting so he encouraged me again, “Ok, all possibilities of pride and arrogance aside, ‘cause i know your heart, just put it out there come hell or high water. Who do you think you are in the Kingdom and what do you do?” Ugh! Man, this was hard. i continued to sputter and pop and really avoid any sort of coherent reply. He asked, “Well, do you think you’re an apostle?” i nearly hissed at him that he would even suggest such an elevated position! i said, while staring at the floor saying in a pitiful voice, “‘The Lord has used me to plant more than a few things which are still going, but no, i don’t think i’m that person.” In my head were visions of overly large heroes of the faith with a little bitty stick figure of myself standing next to them… nope, i didn’t measure up. He asked, “Do you think you’re a prophet?” i sputtered and popped, terrified to answer… now turning my head completely away from him to stare out the window, but said, again saying in a most pitious voice, “The Lord has given me a prophetic gift that works when i wish it wouldn’t and doesn’t work when i wish it would, but i… but… well, ‘er, ummm… you know…” In my mind loomed other large heroes of the faith and an even smaller, itty bitty, three fingered, googley eyed stick figure of myself next to them… nope, didn’t measure up again. This went on and on, we were obviously not getting anywhere because i didn’t see myself fitting any of the “church-sanctioned” commonly accepted titles or recognized “Kingdom models” of identity….in my vision i only saw myself as a little, three-fingered, googley eyed, toothy grinning stick figure.

Then he said, mercifully, “Let’s turn it around then, who do you think you’re NOT?” Immediately, i had my hands on stacks of data i had gathered, and out of my mouth i heard myself say, “Oh, that’s easy, i know a lot about who i’m not.” BAM! In the brilliant NOW of the moment that i said those words, the Lord posed me a very piercing question, He said, “How is it you know so much about what you don’t, and can’t, and won’t, and so little about what you do, and can, and will… how is it you know so little about who I say you are?”

 i was so afraid of believing who God said i was. i was afraid others might not agree with what i saw of myself and publicly embarrass me. i was afraid of failing to actually live up to someone’s expectation of who i presented myself to be. i was afraid of appearing arrogant. i was afraid that what i saw of myself was just a lie i’d told myself because i needed to be “somebody” really bad. i was afraid i didn’t fit the church-sanctioned role of what a spiritual gift was, making who i saw myself as, invalid… again. i was afraid i wouldn’t be squeaky clean enough, therefore i wouldn’t be seen as actually sanctified by the “powers of authority” in my church family. Afraid is the common word in all of that, therefore i did nothing and saw myself as nothing, doing nothing, and going nowhere, that was the safest place it seemed… yet somehow i still had a burning desire to be used of the Lord and to know Jesus. Can you say “cognitive dissonance”?

Over time, i’ve asked people those same questions which my friend offered to me… and do you know?… i have gotten the same sort of replies from men and women from one side of this country to the other. We are not sure how to think of or describe ourselves, and it feels like a real identity crisis… it’s as if we’ve been taught to be afraid to think well of ourselves but to also regret our negative internal narrative, creating, yet another cognitive dissonance. We want to step up and out as the Lord would ask but we are truly terrified someone will see all the junk we keep hidden in our backyard; we fear they’ll see that the pristine front yard doesn’t match the shipwrecks hidden in the back yard…

In true Dr. Seuss-style,

Others might see the ships which had crashed at night on the rocks of ignorant or stupid;

Oh dread that they might see the old sagging boxes of ideas that didn’t work right;

strings and strings of old burned-out Christmas tree lights which shined for the wrong reason;

they might see the never replied-to well-wishing cards,

just burned-up ground, just char going near and far,

they may see the old hope-a-lumps which moved in from the dumps,

the 3-legged hashlets,

4-eyed tagets,

and a line of dirty old dancing rats…

and let’s not forget the aging broken cars which never went far,

all hidden in the backyard…and if people go into our secret spaces, we believe that somehow… somehow… everyone will know, we are not who they thought we were.

Friends, God has another view entirely. Just because we have a different calling doesn’t mean we have a lesser calling. When we hide and build fences, it hinders our forward movement and our being able to come into the destiny God has for us. Secrets build fences, and confession builds bridges.

          Now, don’t you know, we can count on the truth that in Christ, everyone has a calling. Ephesians 4:1-3, “I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”

That is how you do your calling. Not with big-chested declarations but with all humility, gentleness, patience, and bearing with one another in love. Let me encourage us all, just because we don’t know what our calling is by name, doesn’t mean it isn’t there. It is highly likely Paul wrote the letter to the Ephesians while he was in prison in Rome, but while the man was in prison for the faith, he was still talking to other believers about their calling and how to do it.

i knew of a fellow, who, after many years, came to the conclusion that his calling was to be, as he said, “a little brown piece of paper that goes where ever the wind blows, and every now and again, someone picks it up to see what is written on it.”

i know another guy who says his calling is to be like a tow truck, ‘cause he’s got a real knack for showing up when people need a tow.

Many of us, so many ask, “What is my ministry? Please pray for me.” i want to say it again, from the moment you step out your door, every day, you are IN your ministry. Every day you have the opportunity to be gentle with people. Every day you have the opportunity to be kind and patient. i don’t know what to call that, but it is a calling to be the person who does such things. You may not believe all that goes far, but i think you’d be so surprised to learn that even a phone call to tell someone you were thinking of them and wondered if they needed anything, lifts the hearts of someone you may not know is feeling tired and downtrodden. Every day is an opportunity to exercise God’s values… there’s a calling right there. Visit with people, it is the gospel in motion to bring a little peace and sanity to the lives of others.

Letting others into your backyard is brave to many folks. When we hear the testimony of someone at an alcoholics anonymous meeting, we may think they are being brave to tell about the things in their lives which were hidden from sight… and many times their rigorous honesty makes others uncomfortable. But in all their tragedy, they have learned that secrets build fences and confession builds bridges.

When i’ve told my testimony, it is surprising the people who come afterward and tell me what a brave person i am to reveal those things of myself. Oddly, i don’t consider it brave, i consider it a testimony of God’s grace and redemption, it is glorious, but for them to reveal those sorts of things of themselves is truly terrifying. i want people to see the green shoots of grace growing in my backyard. I want people to see the catastrophes which the Lord has turned into beautiful flowers, i want them to see the cataclysmic calamity of my life which the Lord has turned into the blooming trees which smell like God’s cologne growing in my backyard. It is one way we give people hope. Our testimony of God’s greatness is born from our mess in the backyard, not the pristine presentation of the front of the house. It’s not about our badness but about God’s goodness. Our testimony is a praise and God inhabits the praises of His people. (Psalm 22:3). It’s amazing to think that God, in all his fullness, inhabits and dwells in our praises of Him.

Everyone has a backyard, and everyone has stuff hidden away. Everyone has a few secrets, and the older you get the more potential secrets there may be. Until we deal with our hidden things, which cause us such conflict, we can go get deliverance and Sozo until the cows come home, but at some point, we’re going to have to deal with the things which constrain us, that which brought us to needing deliverance in the first place.

Merriam-Webster defines a “calling” as: “… a strong inner impulse toward a particular course of action especially when accompanied by conviction of divine influence.”

i believe entering into my calling in Christ is directly connected to how i tend what’s not easily seen in my backyard. Learning to participate with God in my own restoration, redemption, calling, and salvation is not something that happens overnight. We must be brave to go there. Do #4 of the 12 steps, do a “fearless and moral inventory of yourself”, not your neighbor, but yourself. Playing “Holy Ghost Jr.” on your neighbor, eventually, only causes people to become emotionally unavailable and not transparent. If THEY bring it to the table to investigate is light years apart from taking it upon ourselves to investigate our neighbor. If we think about it, the Lord has been speaking to us about our backyard L-O-N-G before someone decided to do a deep dive, univited, into our backyard. Why were we satisfied to listen to someone aiming their finger at us and ignoring the Lord before hand? Chances are very good God has been long ago talking to us about our mess. Jesus said “Follow Me”, not those who say they follow Jesus. (Matthew 4:19) The Lord desires we participate with Him in what He’s doing. One wonderful point Henry Blackabby makes in “Experiencing God” is that we should ask the Lord to show us where He’s working, and join Him there.

What is behind our house, where we really live in our hearts is far more what defines us than the facade we pose for others to see.

For me and millions of others, how we see ourselves, for real, is somehow reflected in how we see the Lord. The question, “Why do we have such a hard time letting God be good to us?” is not an easy question to answer, not because the answers are hard to find, but because it requires rigorous honesty that most seem unwilling to practice.

We want very much to come into our calling, but what if our calling starts with us resolving our internal conflicts, or at least walking in that direction? What if it starts with us embracing our shadows and learning to let people into our lives enough where we can not only laugh with joyful hearts together but weep with broken hearts together?

To begin cleaning up our backyard, let your mouth tell the story of your bruised conscience, the loss of love for righteous things, and how your flesh has given power over your spirit. Open your mouth and let it out. Let us move in the direction of restoration by unshackling ourselves from our shame and disappointment. Open your mouth and tell it. Do you want to know more clearly what your calling is? The more we clean up our hidden things, the more obvious the green shoots of grace will be, and the more obvious the green shoots of grace and flowers of mercy are in us, the more clarity we will have… day by day, the vision of where we’re going will become more apparent.

James 5:16, “Make this your common practice: Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed. The prayer of a person living right with God is something powerful to be reckoned with.”

In Gen3 a sequence of events took place which changed the course of mankind forever. In the opening scene, the serpent tries to put words in Eve’s mouth by asking her if it was true that God said they couldn’t eat of ANY tree in the garden. Eve replied that God did not say that, but she did add to what the Lord said, saying, they could eat of any tree except the one in the middle, and, here’s the part she added…. that they couldn’t even TOUCH it because they would die. The serpent throws doubt at the woman saying, “Oh, you won’t die! Tsk! He just doesn’t want you to be like Him, almighty, and all-powerful” The serpent implied to the woman that somehow, God was holding out on her, and evidently, she was game to hear it. When the Lord asked Adam why they did what they did, Adam blamed Eve saying it was the woman’s fault, you know, the one YOU gave me. Then the Lord asked Eve a similar question, Eve said, “Oh, the snake deceived me, wasn’t me, wasn’t me!” And the rest is history. But here’s what i’m getting at: Adam and Eve became convinced their way was better than God’s, AND, a big AND there, not only did they not take responsibility for their actions, but they blamed someone else… in the midst of it all they became so self-conscious, that they hid themselves, and then tried to justify and defend their position. Are we any different today? Interview inmates at prison… you’ll hear basically the same premise over and over… interview folks in churches, yes churches, and even there you’ll hear the same idea… wasn’t me, wasn’t me, and “If so-n-so hadn’t done thus and such then i wouldn’t have done this and that.” Still hiding, still afraid someone will discover we are not all we declare, all the while, missing the part that God has a greater destiny for us than we’ve imagined and He is truly good, all the time.

In Genesis 3:9, when God asked, “Where are you?”, He didn’t necessarily mean a geographical location, more likely He meant where are you in your heart, like saying, “What’s with you man?! Who’s side are you on!” The emphasis in the question likely wasn’t a pleasant, even tone. God didn’t need to know where they were in their hearts, as if He was perplexed, He wanted Adam and Eve to search their own heart so THEY would know where they stood and to comprehend the repercussions of their actions. It was not a good day in paradise, but God already had a plan to redeem things, and restore the Kingdom.

i believe many in the church today are so self-conscious and feel so ineffective, they try to present a good face in order to get along, but in the place where they really live, about 3” below the surface of their presentation face, the picture of themselves is similar to how i saw myself all those years ago… like a little stick man, with a round head, eight stick fingers, six stick toes, and a toothy, goofy grin.

God says if we’ll repent, if we’ll be responsible for our actions, if we’ll let our secrets out of the backyard and allow the planting of the Lord to bloom, our calling will come into view, and we will have the fellowship with the Lord as we have dreamed was possible… but as long as we’re still keeping secrets and building fences, coming into your calling is inhibited and restrained… eventually, hiding makes going forward a near impossibility. Consider: What is it that constrains you? Think about it.

           1 John 1:3, “that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.”

In our fellowship with Christ, the Son of God, our role in Kingdom events will gain clarity. You may think that facilitating worship in music and song for a little home group somewhere is, in your mind, “less than”… i can assure you that is not true. Just because you have a different calling doesn’t mean it is a lesser calling.  Maybe your heart was to make records and hit the road, or maybe the dream was that everyone would want you to come to their church to lead them in glorious worship music and go on “world tour” (with “world tour” said with a big echoing voice). Is, hidden in your backyard, a desire to be fabulous, amazing, recognized and great? Is it possible, this thing hidden in the back, this secret desire, could it be something that restrains your entire life? i cannot begin to recount to you the number of very talented young people who come to Christian music producers (as told to me by a producer for Sparrow Records), not always but often not saying, “i want to share Jesus with the world and have a burning passion for the gospel,” but instead from their mouths comes “How soon can i make a record”, “How much does it pay”, and “How soon can i go on the road.”

Let us do what is in front of us. God is using us to be like the point of a pencil on paper. Each of us is writing our story every day in the world around us through our honesty, our kindness, our extension of grace… through our hope, and… when we let people in our backyard, no longer fearing that they will see our shipwrecks and old junk, more importantly, they will also see the green shoots of grace which tell the story of our redemption and restoration.

i’m Social Porter and this has been Outposts.

If we don’t deal with the stuff hidden behind our metaphorical houses, the world will probably never see the green shoots of grace growing there because we are too self-conscious to allow them up close to us. Let the hidden things go and instead of seeing them as an embarrassment, see them as testimonies of God’s great deliverance, mercy, and power. What if Adam and Eve had acted responsibly, owned their actions and repented? How do you think that would have changed things today?

But that’s not what happened, and here we are. Let people see what God has done in your life, be a bright light with all power. Philippians 2:14-15, “Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world,” Let your light shine up close and personal into the eyes of a world which desperately needs Jesus.

Our lives are like the point of a pencil, making letters and words which represent the heart of God, making history. Our lives paint pictures for others to see, make sounds of music and write God-words on our windows where people can look into who we are. You, who are believers, are writing and the world is watching and reading. Invite them up close and personal to observe God’s salvation in your life. Let them in.

Be strong and courageous. Friends, it’s time to get down to business with God. Until we meet again…Amen, and amen.

i thought i would come to the cafe a little prevenient this evening, considering it’s getting dark earlier, i wanted to enjoy the fading light of the day with all the colors of the setting sun.

i’m Social Porter and welcome to Outposts.

Revival is messy! Some folks run to it, others run away. Some stand in the midst and don’t see it, as if their eyes have misted over and they’ve fallen into a dream. Some folks immediately go into emotional overload and just go home, like the pastor upon who’s church the Holy Spirit visited, and it all contradicted so many of his pet doctrines he just clicked out… rounded up his family and left all the people to it telling them to turn out the lights and lock up when they were done. Yes, that really happened.

Then, yes, then, there are the leaders who feel they must control it all, still trying to orchestrate things, managing the time schedule, don’t do or say anything which challenges our mission statement or by laws, keep everyone within the rules, especially the women…no kidding, it happens… sort of like asking the worship team to go up and do something spontaneous for a just a few minutes. Hmmmm….that would be scripted spontaneity… how do you do that? It’s in the same absurd vain as “a suggested required donation”…  it’s an oxymoron, meaning they are contradictory terms appearing in conjunction.

There’s a lot of material out there, really good material, addressing the issue of the coming outpouring of the Lord, so this is nothing new to hear about. Even so, it is always worth talking about. Why? Because when it happens in your heart, in your house, in your church, in your town, all that great reading material will be at home on the night stand, you’ll be the one in the middle of it all, and it will be unique to you and yours, specifically where you are at the time, and the predictable outcome and calculatable results won’t be as were expected. The idea is to flow with the Spirit in the season, not get lost in a well-meaning revival model some very smart person mapped out.

When revival blossoms like fragrant, well-watered flowers, and then turns into a raging, Holy Ghost wild fire, there is no room for the 3P’s… power, position, and prestige… you know, pride and arrogance will cause us to slit our eyes to only see what we want, will narrow our ears to only hear what we want, and will turn the song in our mouth into the braying of a donkey. Our self-importance and image management programs will be like a headstone tied around our neck, dragging us down to the depths of the ocean floor. God requires us to come in by the narrow gate in Luke 13:24, but pride and arrogance, self-important title lovers will be too big to get through. Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines….position yourselves for what God is about to do. Prayer is not about pulling God down, but putting ourselves in position for what He’s about to do.

When the Lord makes His move, it will truly be… beyond all our predictions and expectations. He will exceed our ideas of who should be in charge, who is anointed, how and where it will happen. We can’t “make” it happen, nor can we extract revival from God to happen before He is ready… but, we certainly can prepare by positioning ourselves, physically, emotionally, and spiritually… prayer is the starting place, as usual, and everything else builds from there.

Proverbs 14:4, “Where there are no oxen, the manger is clean, but abundant crops come by the strength of the ox.” If the barn is clean, there’s not much going on.

i don’t know it, but i seriously doubt the next outpouring of the Lord will be gotten by following the guide lines of an old paradigm or a nifty church model which worked once upon a time. In Joshua 6 they marched around Jericho seven times and the seventh time all the people shouted with a great shout and the walls fell down. Never again has taking a city happened that way.

In 1Samuel 17 David defeated the champion of the Philistines with a rock and a sling. 1 Samuel 17:49-50, “And David put his hand in his bag and took out a stone and slung it and struck the Philistine on his forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the ground. So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and struck the Philistine and killed him. There was no sword in the hand of David.”

What? NO SWORD? Scripture specifically points this out in nine little words making an incredible point. Yep, No SWORD! Ha! He threw a rock at the guy, the rock made its mark, and the battle was all over except the crying from the enemy.

It had never happened that way before. There are no reports of anyone ever defeating an enemy with a sling and a stone again. Sure, i reckon it’s possible there may have cropped up training centers for future rock slingers, and there may have been people selling slings and some “special giant killer” stones as if they were at a carnival somewhere, but never was it reported that God took out an enemy the same way… ever again.

The method with which revival is arrived at is by following God’s lead. In Acts 2the Holy Spirit came while believers were praying in an upper room… after that i bet there were people who decided that in order for all that wonderment to happen again, they had to find an upper room somewhere, fast and pray, all because some bright person figured that’s how revival happens. (BUZZER)

Another time in June of 1800 at the Red River Meeting House, a small rural Presbyterian congregation was holding a church service which began as a Scottish sacrament service… the communion service started on a Thursday, which was a day of fasting, Friday as a day to ask questions and have discussions, Saturday was preparation day, Sunday they met and had communion, and Monday was a day of giving thanks. But in the middle of it all there began amazing Holy Spirit manifestations with increasing intensity and burning passion for the Lord. The congregants gathered at the church, other sat nearby campsites for singing, worship, and prayer in the morning… there were reports that many continued on for three days and nights, weeping, singing loudly, repenting, and praising God… the passion and zeal would seem to die down and suddenly a shout would come out of the camp and the fire would rise again, continuing for hours and days… as God released one group to rest, He brought in others to carry on, day and night… that is extreme, even in my opinion. It was all so intense it spread from Branch County Kentucky to the surrounding Cumberland region into Tennessee, Ohio, and Western North Carolina. The Holy Ghost fire lasted for almost a year and included other denominations like the Methodists, Quakers and even some stiff Presbyterian leadership. People came from great distances to be a part of what God was doing. One newspaper reporter wrote, as he watched the crowds from a hill, that as they sang and worshipped tirelessly day and night in the valley below him, he could see the Holy Spirit sweeping over the immense crowd of people saying it looked like wind blowing in waves across fields of wheat. From the Cane River Revival an important innovation of continuous church services emerged which they called camp meetings. The revival came to a close around May of 1801.

i grew up in the southeast Bible belt, and even to this day, there are many preachers who still put up a tent and hold camp meetings. Of course, the pattern of camp ground meetings the Lord used in 1800 isn’t how He did it in other revivals. The Scottish sacrament service was tradition which had carried over from Europe, but what the Lord did was unique to the necessities and identities of the people in the culture of the area. If we try to work up revival based on what happened before, what once was the method of connecting with God will become the very method of our hindrance, if we don’t transition to the new, we will be constrained by the old.

Praying and pursuing the Lord for breakthrough and revival is necessary and sounds pretty spiritual and lofty, but honestly, it isn’t exactly a glamorous adventure. It’s bigger than that, there’s more to it than just thinking someone will take a picture of you walking on the water and posting it on Instagram somewhere. In the midst of God’s moving many will feel broken and messy… of course we all want to feel bold, courageous and fearless, but instead what we’ve really got is just how much we desperately needed Jesus every step of the way… some thing just feels right about that. The Lord will get all up in people’s lives. Right now, we may think, Praise God! This is what we came for. But when you’re all laid out on the floor, weeping, broken, and your nose is running in puddles on the floor, it’s not the predictable scene many previously imagined, which was hands raised in the air, everything nice and neatly folded. We live in a world full of broken people in desperate need of a Savior. There will be people showing up in all their brokenness, chaos and all, crying out for Jesus. i can tell you from experience, you may have your composure at the back of the room, but the more intense God’s presence becomes, the less important how you look and act will be.

i think i’m realizing that the world wants us to look at pain, disappointment, loss and injustice as defeat, and it’s not… it’s the reality of life and the truth of ourselves.

In the year 2000, i had an encounter with the Lord that lasted almost a month, with the first 2 weeks being so extreme i can’t hardly talk about it, even now, without being reduced to a puddle. i was in the middle of remodeling a really old house…there was stuff i simply HAD to get done. i hadn’t been doing anything too out of the ordinary for me. It is normal for me to pray in the morning and at night, it is normal for me to fast sometimes, and it is normal for me to read my Bible and study every opportunity i’ve got. So it’s not like i was intentionally pressing in to get something from God. One morning in April about 10am i had just laid some plywood underlayment and while i was down on the floor, i had the thought, “Hey, while you’re down here on your knees, why don’t you pray for a while?” Seemed reasonable, so i did.

Suddenly, the room filled with the presence of the Lord….there was pressure, a wonderful pressing in upon me to the point i was sobbing, not just crying but sobbing…it felt like water pressing through a sponge. Every time i’d try and squeeze the tears out of my eyes so i could see, involuntarily bowed down before Him and the water from my face poured even more… He pressed so close and hard in upon me i couldn’t talk, worship, praise or make any sounds other than sobbing. The one bit of will i had was that i was determined to NOT beg Him to stop but for the Lord to pour all He would pour on me. i was pushed to all my limits, everything in me was pegging the meter. This went on all day and into the night. My family thought i was crazy but it was God, God was in the house and i couldn’t help but be overwhelmed…even my overwhelmed was overwhelmed. A week went by, i couldn’t hardly drive a nail for weeping joy. i profusely and urgently wrote praise and worship, page after page… i even wrote in tongues (it doesn’t matter if you don’t believe it, well, there it is. And it’s not something i contrived or dreamed up. There it is, so, what would you do? Just because someone doesn’t believe God does stuff like that doesn’t mean he doesn’t do those things just because they don’t believe it. It only means, they don’t believe it, and that is all), can you believe that? i made up a written language and wrote in tongues, as totally bizarre as that sounds, all because i could only sob. The world around me was in colors i’d never seen, everything vibrated, visibly vibrated according to it’s resonant frequency… i heard every detail from the breathing of the trees to the spider building a web… i heard the brilliance of all His hand had made. There were dreams… oh my gosh, the dreams… there were God dreams and i’d wake up praying and sobbing. i didn’t wake up and then get blown away, i woke up blown away. This all went on for 2 weeks, day and night. By week three no one would hardly speak to me, they just stared and i knew i was worrying them and driving them crazy. i openly wept at the lumber store, at church, in the feed and seed store… i couldn’t help it due to the press of the incredible presence of the Lord. By week 4 His overwhelming presence was beginning to fade and i began to find my voice, singing praise and worship loud and long, all day long. At the end of the 4th week, i could converse with people without sobbing. It was the Lord and i knew it. Something had been planted in me and i would never be the same.

You’ll not leave here as you came in Jesus Name. Bound, demented, depressed, sick or lame. For the Holy Ghost of Acts is still the same… you’ll not leave here as you came in Jesus Name.

Many years after my encounter with the Lord, a fellow asked me why i didn’t fast and pray to get back to that place of living in the press of His presence. You know, i did try, but it was like trying to light a lighter that was just out of butane…it would spark with a weak flame for a moment and then go out, eventually my efforts only drew a spark, and then it wouldn’t even spark anymore.

i want you to know, when God is in the house and it’s time for revival, no one has to tell you God is in the house. You can’t make it happen, you can’t beat the drums enough to make Him come down. God arrives when He arrives, never early, never late, but always right on time.

There are three rains in Joel 2:23, “Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God: for he hath given you the former rain moderately, and he will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month.”

There are four rains mentioned there, two are spelled the same but the other two are spelled differently, so there are three different rains which the Lord mentions. Now that’s a discussion for another time, but the point is HE sends the rain, we position ourselves to receive the rain, but we don’t go get the rain nor can we squeeze it out of His hand… He gives it, we receive it.

i went to a major meeting of a well-known international evangelist and speaker many years ago. They beat the drums and played the music for three hours straight… the people were worked up into a lather. Then a man in the employ of the evangelist, right when it seemed the people were at a peak frenzy, got up and started yelling that “God is in the house! GOD is in the house!” Every time he said, “God is in the house!” the people went crazy. Then he started yelling, “Who wants to live under an open Heaven? Who will be the first to give $1000?” i was exasperated with the exploitation of the peoples hot emotion and high atmosphere. After 10 minutes of yelling “God is in the house!” i thought to myself, “You know, if God was really in the house in the sense he means “God is in the house”, he probably wouldn’t have to tell us. We would all more than likely be on the floor, under chairs, weeping, sobbing, repenting, and call out for mercy. i doubt we would need to be told God was in the house though, because when He’s in the house, oh baby, let me tell you, you’ll know it is the Lord and you best be getting low!”

i’ll say it again, no one will have to tell you the Lord is present, we can’t drive Him off for God isn’t as brittle as we might imagine, nor can we make Him stay longer than He’ll stay because the Lord doesn’t manipulate and isn’t subject to coercion, nor is He for sale and is persuaded by someone waving money at Him.

The Lord pours out when He pours out, sometimes at the seemingly smallest things. For example, in 1904, while churches were packed for prayer, during a prayer meeting for young people, Pastor Joseph Jenkins asked for testimonies. A young girl named Florrie Evans, who had only been a believer a few days, rose and with a trembling voice said simply, “I love Jesus with all my heart.” Suddenly, the other young people’s hearts were melted. A powerful spiritual awakening called the Welsh Revival that brought 100,000 people to Christ was under way. The London Times pointed out that entire congregations were on their knees in fervent prayer and “for the first time there was not a single case of drunkenness at the Swansea Petty Sessions.    At the same time in another location, David Lloyd-George, who later became the British Prime Minister, was impressed as a young girl prayed in the presence of 2,000 people. He said, in one town, the tavern sold only 9 cents worth of drinks on Saturday night!

The whole population had been suddenly stirred by a common impulse… Jesus had become the overwhelming, absorbing interest of their lives. People gathered at crowded services for six and eight hours and more at a time. Political meetings were canceled, football games were postponed…even quarrels between trade-union workmen and non-unionists were resolved. The Salvation Army set apart January 19th for a day of confession, humbling themselves, and prayer throughout four countries… England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Did you get that? Throughout four countries! All day prayer meetings were held in many of the principal cities of the British Isles, according to the London Times. The meeting was marked by “fervent prayer and anyone who felt called upon to pray.” The Holy Spirit fires of spiritual revival and moral recovery were spreading.
Coal miners crowded into prayer meetings that lasted till 3:00 a.m. and then they washed up, ate breakfast and returned to work. The fire of revival was even taken underground into the long dark coal mines…and the company managers were good with that. In many cities, newspapers reported that many abandoned gambling and their habits of ill repute to the point that gambling and prostitution businesses closed down for lack of patronage.

Employers noticed a great improvement in the work produced by their employees. A week of united prayer meetings in an English town called Nuneaton led to a “glorious revival”. The Prince’s Theatre was packed each Sunday night after church with 1500 praying believers and many unsaved seekers….the meetings often went on into the night and into the next day. In the Bedfordshire villages, whole nights devoted to prayer prepared for powerful evangelism.

Long lines of people lined up to be baptized, old and young alike. This was more than just a single church having an evening of high emotion and hot atmosphere, more than just banging on drums and playing music wishing things would change…it was happening right in front of them, and each person was in the thick of it. The Welsh Revivals aren’t even the biggest and best known. When the Lord shows up, everything and everyone bows down and declares Him as God.

That is just a glimpse of what it looks like when the Holy Spirit pours out upon us and there springs forth revival in our midst. Probably the largest current revival going on today is in China with about 30,000 people coming to Christ every day.

When the Christ of God came, when Jesus walked the streets, speaking the word of the Lord, healing the sick and lame, raising the dead, and just straight out challenged the religious regime of the day, i think it was the biggest revival ever started. There were always crowds, lots of people, lots of decisions, lots of debating over who He was. It was a jumble as people were pressed in their hearts to decide the most important decision of their lives. There were times when He healed them all, and other times scripture records He only healed one that we know of. The Son of God was the talk of everywhere and was the overwhelming impulse of people’s lives. i can’t think of anyone anywhere more important to spend my time with and to dream about.

The closer the Lord gets to all things, the more all things become like Him. Our God is a consuming fire and draws all things to Himself. Let us pursue the Lord for revival, the breakout of the Holy Spirit for ourselves and our nation. Think about it.

           Oswald Chambers wrote: “We are nowhere told to preach salvation or sanctification or divine healing; we are told to lift up Jesus who is the Redeemer, and He will produce His redemptive results in the souls of men. If I preach only the effects of the redemption, describe in persuasive speech what God has done for me, nothing will happen. It is only when I am humble enough and stupid enough to preach the Cross that the miracle of God takes place.”

Where then do we start with all this? i think Oswald Chambers hit the nail on the head. When we lift up Jesus… there is the starting place. John 12:32, “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”

All out pouring of the Holy Spirit are preceded by prayer in one form or another. Maybe it’s just a few consistently gathering in a home with the burden of prayer, and then the Lord inspires others to do the same at church, but little by little, the transition to being in position for revival is achieved. Another facet of revival seems to be repentance and the deep knowledge of the need for Jesus by anyone and everyone in the flow of His presence, believer or not.

All in all, it is about Jesus, declaring Jesus, acknowledging Jesus who is our hope and our strength, our resurrected savior who died and rose again for our sins. i do believe it’s safe to say, revival begins on our knees.

i’m Social Porter and this has been Outposts.

The Lord is preparing us for a great outpouring as we’ve never experienced. Position yourself by prayer, knowing who He is and understanding His heart. What will you do on your day of visitation. i don’t know about you, but i don’t want just a visitation, i want a habitation. Even so, come Lord Jesus. Amen.

          The following is a compilation from The Message Bible:

Did you know God is a safe house? The moment you arrive, you relax, and you’re never sorry you knocked on God’s door. When God speaks to victims, real victims, their faint pulse picks up and the hearts of the hopeless are lifted when He whispers in their ears. The rule of the gang lords is nearly done and the days of Pharaoh are almost finished. Our God and King made sky-jewelry for us and let’s us write in His book of wonders! How wonderous He is, He is God, our God. When God is around mischief backfires, violence boomerangs, and the people who have mouthfuls of curses turn into windbags, they are flat-earth people who can’t think beyond today. Without Jesus, the Christ of God, man drinks from a canteen filled with hot desert wind, they hang out at Sin-Saloon, they wander down Dead-End Road, those who despise righteousness are what God calls, Hot air boasters!  Bilious and bloated they gas out, they say, “God is gone”….but look at their lives, haven’t you noticed….thistles are their cash crop. They are like sheep which take turns pretending to be the shepherd, but in the end, without God they are just a string of zero’s, treating people like a fast food meal over which they’re too busy to even pray.

Me? i’ll never treat God’s name like a brand name. i’m going to be like turned-around Jacob skipping rope. God’s wise counsel is confirmed in me and is obvious by my resting heart. He cancelled my ticket to hell, and tore up my sin-paycheck. When i had so many secrets which i kept hidden by fences that ran every which way, God was kind and didn’t tear them down, but instead He wrote grace-graffiti all over my fences. Before i knew Jesus, the devil’s water rushed in on me all the time, hell’s ropes clinched tight on my wrists, there were death traps everywhere, and the hangman’s noose was tight around my neck! But then God!! That’s right, But then my God showed up! The earth wobbled, mountains shook, nostril’s flared, mouths spit fire, there were bright cloud bursts, hailstones and fireballs sprayed, oceans were exposed, lightening was hurled, and my God came against the enemy of Heaven like hurricane-anger that is loosed…. and He made me to stand, liberated, on a wide open field. i was, and am, so surprised by His love! He gave me a fresh start. He opened the book of my heart so all His glorious works He had done in me could be reviewed. The text of my life was written, i tasted His goodness, His health and His Truth: my life became God’s floodlight! How can it be, how can it be, that God is so good to a man like me?

Jesus came to me, i could see Him coming down the road from a far, far off, as if i had telescopic vision! There was glory blazing, high fences were vaulted, His enemies were caught and the upstarts were smashed; dead men got nailed! Wham! Wham! i’m telling you, i saw Jesus do it! He was amazingly fearless! What confidence! His presence was so overwhelming that the haters were wiped out, devils gave up and left their hideouts. The Rock is a blessing, He is free and freeing and sets things right. Jesus is Glory on tour, He is God-craft exhibited. At His command Madame Day holds classes, and Professor Night lectures, and unspoken truth is spoken everywhere. There is a new husband for the sun and daybreak races for the tape, there are songs of songs sung, and His Name is beautiful rhyme as hearts are warmed to faith.

Thanks for joining me, i’m Social Porter for Living In His Name Ministries.

Having set through more than a few sessions of listening to someone attempt to resolve a conflict with someone else, one significant thing i have noticed more often than not, was both people displayed an amazingly distinct lack of listening. We seem to be so involved with ourselves, what we’re going to say and do, that we can’t hear the other person.  In fact, it is a pleasant rarity to meet someone who not only listens, but can actually summarize back to you what you said. You know, it’s very hard to hear your neighbor, when you’re always moving your mouth.

i believe part of the general world anxiety level, which i think is very, very high, is that most folks don’t feel heard, we feel small, invisible, invalidated, and unnecessary, suffering from a generalized feeling of abandonment. i really do believe much of our anxiety could actually be impacted if most of us just put some effort into learning to listen. But, in the middle of conflict, our attitude is, “Who wants to listen to them, especially when THEY are so wrong?”, all said with capital letters, highlighted punctuation, and a little too loud and emphatic.

Maybe it would help if we had a better understanding of what it means to listen, which means  >> to “broaden the ear, hear intelligently, to prick up your ears and pay attention”. Do you see it? It’s more than just perceiving words, but about making an effort to understand the other person and what they mean. Don’t just hear words, but listen for the heart in it all.

At that, i thought i’d cover four basic points of how and where to begin in becoming a good listener.

#1 – Listen in an active manner. Pay attention. Be in the room. Nobody wants to talk to a corpse, so learn to do these three things: Paraphrase, clarify, and give feedback. That’s really important, so hear it is again: paraphrase, clarify, and give feedback. Paraphrasing helps you understand correctly. Clarifying is asking questions until you fully understand what the other person means. Feedback is sharing your own thoughts and feelings in a nonjudgmental way…and, looky here man, you can’t add “you’re such an idiot” at the end and still hope for a positive outcome. Yes, i know, maybe it’s true, but it simply doesn’t need to be said, that is if you really do want to resolve the conflict… you’ll have to search your own heart to know that.

#2 – Listen with empathy. Try to imagine yourself in the other person’s shoes… Understand your neighbor’s problem without joining them in their conflict. Did you get that? Without joining them in their conflict. You may not like what’s being said, but often, as you listen, you may realize that if you were in their shoes you might feel that way too. Rom12:15, “Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep”. Remember, no one said we have to agree, but consider, God listens to us in all our madness, true, but it doesn’t mean He agrees.

#3 – Listen with openness. Selective listening, defensive listening, and filtered listening are not open listening. Listen as though you were an anthropologist and the person were from another planet; their customs, beliefs and way of thinking are different from yours, and you’re trying to understand them. Again, by no means do we have to go along with their perspective, but we certainly can hear about their dilemma without joining them in it.

(4) Listen with awareness. Does what they are saying line up with the facts? Meaning we, as the listener must have done our homework to at least have an idea of the facts, and consider… just because you have the facts is that the truth. Facts are not always the complete story. If you’ve listened actively, empathetically and openly, and still don’t understand their point of view, you don’t have to attack. Go after the problem not the person! Ridiculing, humiliating, and deliberately provoking the other person does not resolve the conflict, but more embeds the conflict… those actions don’t win anything, it just makes you look like you only want to win and who cares what is right. Take a breath, relax, wait, and gather more information.

The idea is be engaging instead of off-putting. Instead of violently rejecting the other person, possibly you could ask, “Could you tell me a bit more?” or “Could you give me a specific example?” Or you might say, “Thank you for letting me know your perspective. I’ll think about it.” Or, “That’s interesting, I hadn’t considered it in that light.”

God listens to us and hears us, and let us practice to be like the Lord. The art of listening is a Christ-like skill we must develop! Many hear, but few really listen, and that can be changed.

Thank you for reading, i’m social porter with Living in His Name Ministries.