Tag: Church

Out of Order

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On Periscope @lisagreat
 
On the bathroom door at our church, there is a sign on one of the stalls that says, OUT OF ORDER, in big bold letters. This sign is meant to let people know that this stall is inoperable at this time. It is not that it will never work again, or that it is damaged beyond repair, but to inform those who come in the bathroom, that this one stall is out of order. No one is mad at the stall, saying, I will never use that stall again, or that somehow this church has issues because there is one stall that is out of order. Common sense tells the reader, this stall is unable to function according to design at this time, but will be back in operation as soon as it is fixed.
 
This sign caught my attention on Sunday after church, because, the Lord has been speaking to me about order and how many people are living lives that are out of order. What He has been showing me is that when we are out of order, we are ineffective, we are not producing based on design and even though we hope no one notices, others often see that we are out of order even before we do. So, what I am sensing is we need to admit to ourselves, the Lord and others that we are out of order.
 
1 John 1:8-10 says, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make Him out to be a liar, and His word is not in us.…” Then James 5:16 says, “Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man has great power to prevail.” Finally, 2 Chronicles 7:13-14 says, “When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, 14 if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”
 
Because people are living lives that are out of order, our nation is out of order and the nations are out of order for people make up nations. So, if we want to see a change in our nations, we need to start with something changing in us. I am hearing a lot of people talk about the problems in our nations, there is a lot of blaming going on as to why things are the way they are right now, but I believe we need to take a look at our life and realize we are out of order, that is our family is out of order, our city is out of order, our money is out of order, our health is out of order, our nation is out of order. The issue is not global, national or even local before it is individual. We have a corporate problem, yes, but it is because we have individual problems that come together and reveal a national problem.
 
So, what do we do, I believe as believers in Jesus Christ we need a chiropractic adjustment from the Chief Cornerstone. We are out of plumb line (Amos 7) individually, so the first order of business is for me, is for you to return to the Lord. We must repent of our lifestyle that has compromised the word of God; we must repent of living self-centered lives; we must repent of our disobedience; because disobedience to the word of God what got us out of order and obedience to the word of God is what will bring us back into order.
Many men and women who are in pulpits and have platforms today are crying out for fresh voices to arise, not because we need more preachers, but because we need new preachers, ones who can bring the old truths of the gospel in a fresh way. We must go back to the foundation of faith in order to get back into order. This may mean, we need to allow the Holy Spirit to do a spiritual detox of choices of movies, music, and spending habits; we may need the Lord to convict us of the way we treat other people with our words and attitudes, especially those that live with us; we may need Jesus Himself, the lover of our souls to create in us a clean heart and renew a steadfast spirit in us (Psalm 51).
 
Ladies and gentlemen, you can try to act like it’s not true, but the reality is, we are out of order and God is bringing a reformation of truth to put us back in order. He wants us to produce fruit of righteousness, live in safety and peace again, and experience the presence and power of God in our lives, our families, our churches and our nation again. We may be out of order right now, but it is temporary, for the Great Physician is on the way to heal our lives, if we will surrender, not resist His way of putting us back in order.

The House of God 3.0

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Matthew 21:13/Mark 11:17/Luke 19:46
“And Jesus said to them, It is written, My house shall be called
a house of prayer; but you are making it a robbers den.”
 
In the Old Testament we read of two houses that were built for the Lord, both temples for God. Places of worship, prayer, offerings and fellowship. Both were destroyed and the desire to build a third temple is on the radar of some even at this time in history. But what if the house of God in the New Testament was not a building, but a person? What is the house of prayer Jesus referred to in the gospels was not about some physical location, but rather some person or persons? What if you were created to be a house of prayer, what if I was created to be a house of prayer?
 
Colossians 1:27 says, “God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
 
What if you were the house of God 3.0? The bible says, you are the temple of the Holy Spirit (I Corinthians 6:19). But what if you were the house of God that Jesus called a house of prayer? What if you were truly a living a sacrifice holy and acceptable to God as spoken about in Romans 12:1? What if what we have been taught about the house of God being somewhere we go is actually someone we are?
 
One of the new things that God is doing is opening up the windows of revelation and pouring out fresh understanding about His word. Mysteries that many of old longed to peer into we are being invited to seek and find. As the new leaders who are not just anointed but carry authority, begin to appear, many new ways of seeing the scripture will come forth. The truth they are going to bring has always been there, but it was veiled to us in past seasons, but is being revealed to us in this season.
 
Some will reject the fresh revelations that God is presenting, because religion, even charismatic, tongue talking religion does not like to look like they don’t know something. But with great humility, which is godly confidence, and precise wording, which is rightly dividing the word of truth, they will display anointing plus authority with messages and miracles that the world and the church are hungry for. One of those revelations is that you are the house of God, you are a house of prayer, which means you need to ask yourself, have you made God’s house, which is you, a den of robbers? You are the house of God 3.0.

The Transgender Truth

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Hot button subjects are not waters I like to wade into, but they are crossing over into mainstream life which will begin to alter the way we think if we do not hit it head on. Deception has a way of subtly sneaking into our thoughts, through music, movies, books, newspapers, and television shows. Whenever you add a message to music or a movie it solidifies that message in our thoughts in a way that just reading does not do. So, with this issue going public, I decided it was time to address the truth about the transgender issue.

Jeremiah 17:9-10 says, “The heart is hopelessly dark and deceitful, a puzzle that no one can figure out. But I, God, search the heart and examine the mind. I get to the heart of the human. I get to the root of things. I treat them as they really are, not as they pretend to be.” (The Message)

I like the way the Message bible translates this verse, because most Christians are really good at recognizing whether they believe fruit is good or bad and if it is bad they want to pluck it, throw it away and think by doing so it is gone. But the reality of a tree is that bad fruit is the product of a rotten root, the issue is not the fruit, it is the root. That is why in this translation it says, God goes to the root of things, for it you go to the root, you can change the fruit. So, as this pertains to the transgender issue what we are seeing is the fruit of a deeper unseen root.

The root of the transgender issue is one of identity. Transgender people are manifesting because people have an identity crisis. They don’t know who they are. But the root goes even deeper, the reason they are having an identity crisis is because people have grown up fatherless. Fathers instill identity, so when fatherlessness is rampant, identity issues will take root and the fruits they produce are countless, but the root is an identity issue that came from fatherlessness. Now this is not a slam on men, for most men are products of fatherlessness themselves and they too have their own identity issue, that is why they don’t themselves know how to be fathers.

I believe the reason God is releasing the revelation of the Father, that songs are rising about Him being a good good Father is because, we are so in need of a Father, who will instill identity into us as sons and daughters. In the Parable of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15 we see the 5-fold restoration of God, the first thing a Father restores is relationship, no shame, no condemnation, no questions, no scolding, just an embrace, a restoration of the relationship. Next we see the restoration of identity, by the placing of the robe on the son, I Peter 2:9 says, we are a royal priesthood, the robe is a symbol of identity. Once the relationships is restored, the Father restores our identity. The only way this happens is by spending time with the Father. When we are fatherless, we fear getting close to the Father, so we talk about Him, sing about Him, but do not let our hearts get close to Him.

Jesus said, You honor me with your lips, but your hearts are far from Me (Matthew 15:18). The invitation from heaven is to come near, come to your senses, you are a son, you are a daughter of God, every human being was created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26), if you would turn toward Him He will run to you. Prodigals are not in the streets only, they are in the church and if we would return, we could show those in the streets who our Father is and then He would restore their identity as a son or daughter designed in His image. The transgender truth is not about malicious sexual, deviant or heinous sin, it is a cry for identity, it is a call for someone to show them the Father!