Prayer for Our President

Oh Lord my God, give President Obama wisdom to lead this nation under your authority. Give him the strength to follow Your voice more than the voice of others. As he leads the nation, give him understanding of how You have dealt with nations in the past. And may he reverence Your name.

As he moves among the nations of the Earth, let Your agenda be on his lips and mind. Keep him by Your power.

Bless his wife and children, and keep them all safe.

Lord, blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. Be our God, oh Lord. Be our God.

 

The Spirit MADE Me Do It? – Pass the Test

Once you pass the test, you don’t have to take it anymore.

A friend of mine called me from out of state with a dilemma.  He is a worship leader at a rather traditional church and ran into an issue with the minister of music (MOM).   My friend felt a “move of the Spirit” to take the worship service in a different direction.  Well, MOM did not like it and told the friend never to do that again without first getting MOM’s permission.

My friend called and said, “Bruce, how shall I handle this?”

I told him that, first of all, the Holy Spirit does not come to control us and MAKE us do something.  The God who gives us a choice to trust Him or not, also gives us the choice to obey Him or not.  So, let’s get off of this trip that whenever the Holy Spirit is moving, I am now out of control.  This is certainly a prescription for disorder in the house of God.   (Read I Corinthians 14:32)

Then, I went on to say, that if you are playing on a team, you’ve got to play by the coach’s rules or find another team.  If MOM wants you to get permission before you sing a different song, or whatever, then get his permission.  Or, find another team.   The only challenge with finding another team is that you will have to take the same test there.   The test being, are you willing to let go of your religion, opinion, and personal agenda for the good of the team.   No matter what your motive, or how pure it is, the team can’t function with a different set of rules for each player.

Now, I don’t know if I agree with MOM’s approach.  But, that’s not my point here.  The point is, my friend had a test to pass.  This was his opportunity to show God that he would abandon what he felt (or even knew) for the sake of the larger good at the time.   Turns out, he had never passed this test.

So, my final counsel to him was this:  Once you pass the test, you don’t have to take it anymore.   The moment you learn to abandon what you think, in service of another, doing it the next time won’t be a test, but a matter of discipline.

What’s your test?

Pass it.

 

The Ekklesia

Jesus said: “I will build My Church.”  Jesus is building the Church.  Thank God, because we sure would mess it up.  LOL!!!   

His Church is not a club, nor a group of folks enjoying good music, good preachin’, and good eatin’.   (Although, there’s nothing wrong with any of those in moderation.)  His Church is His Ekklesia – a community of called-out people who govern on His behalf.   His Church does not exist to  blend in, nor simply stand out.  His Church is simply called to BE a “live expression on Earth of what is happening in Heaven”, as Tom Skinner would have put it.   His Church is called to maximize human potential by practicing the fellowship with the Holy Spirit and revelation of the the Word of God.  His church is called to govern in the land with righteous and justice, mercy and truth.

His Church is the most glorious organism on the planet.  The very gates of Hell shall not prevail against it.

I love the Church, because she is Jesus’ Church.  There’s no need in looking for something that will work, apart from the Church.  She is a unified unstoppable force of sold-out overcomers.  She still is the pillar and ground of truth.  She will remain God’s voice to the World.  She will be presented one day to the Bridegroom Jesus without spot or wrinkle. 

All of creation is waiting for the Church to know who She is and walk in Her purpose.

Will you be the Church today and govern in your sphere of influence, increasing in the character of Jesus for the glory of God?

 

The Powerless Leader

In God’s Kingdom, very often leaders are called to do the opposite of what comes natural to most people.  To increase, they give.  To abundantly live, something in them must die.  To lead, they have to follow the Holy Spirit.   To be honored, they first choose humility.   To reign, they must fellowship with Christ in His suffering.  To be strong, they will first be weak before God.

Ultimately, the godly leader’s confidence is in her fear of God.   The godly leader is as powerful as he is powerless before God.

Prayer is as powerful as we are powerless.  When you go to God, get low.  Abandon all of your power.  And, with arms stretched wide, endure the cross.

Grace is released at the cross – the ultimate place of voluntary powerlessness.

God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

 

Leadership At It’s Best: Jesus

A monumental moment in the lives of Jesus’ disciples occurred in Matthew 10.  Jesus sent them out to do what He had been doing. Up to this point, they have watched Jesus do the work.  Now, it’s their turn.

This is leadership at it’s best: modeling the behavior you want to see reproduced and then empowering people do it, while cheering them on. Lord help us, as leaders, to be the word we preach while taking people along for the ride!

I believe God is calling leaders in this hour to be like Jesus – to do before teaching, to take people with them on their journeys with God, to show people how to pray for others and how to share their faith (by doing it with them) and then releasing them to do the same.

This is the ultimate growth strategy – leadership at it’s best.

 

$900B to 9 million people?

$900B in the hands of the same greedy folk will produce the same greedy result:  grief.

Greed will always bring grief. (Proverbs 1:19)

Giving to the poor is a loan to God.  He repays.  (Proverbs 19:17)

What if we took that $900B and gave 9 million productive middle-class citizens $100,000 each and told them, this money must go towards a savings that can’t be spent for 2 years, a mortgage, credit card, student loan, food, or some community organization that is helping people during this crisis?   They would also have to volunteer 300 hours of community service over the next two years.  Would that not stimulate the economy?

 

Marketplace Grace

The outcome of our work can be worship.

The Heavens declare the glory of God!   When God finished His work, He said “This is good.”   Let’s be like God: produce good work that gives Him glory.

Every product we produce, every task can bring glory t0 God.  This happens through excellence.   Because God is excellent our work can be excellent.

To what extent will your work speak of the glory to God today?

 

Fierce Urgency of Now

As I reflect on this day and on tomorrow, I’m reminded of the Words of Rev. Martin Luther King when he called the nation to respond to the “fierce urgency of now.”

Whatever you have been ordained and assigned to do , do it now.    I believe God has said: “Celebrate, but do not spectate.”   Certianly, history is in the making.   What’s more important, however,  is what history will we make from this moment on.

It will take God.  It will take prayer.  It will take hard work and sacrifice.  Now is the time to pray with a fierce urgency of now so that we avoid what the prophetic “Negro National Anthem” warned:

“God of our weary years,

God of our silent tears,

Thou who has brought us thus far on the way;

Thou who has by Thy might

Led us into the light,

Keep us forever in the path, we pray.

Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee,

Lest, our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee”

 

Jesus period.

The Church truly is God’s answer to many of societal ills.  Let us never give up on her.  She is the Bride of Jesus Christ.  Let us recognize that whatever we want the Church to become, we must become, because after all we are the Church.

It is not our liturgy, it is not our tradition, it is not our history that will cause our success.  It is radical prayer that moves God, it is radical faith that believes the Big Dreams of God, and it is our radical message that Jesus is Lord.  He’s the whole story.   It’s Jesus period.

 

Natural and Spiritual

“Howbeit that was not first which was spiritual, but that which is natural …”  – I Corinthians 15:46

We can breakthrough, if we do our part.  Sometimes we have not seen breakthroughs to higher spiritual heights because we have not done the “natural” things we need to do.

The other day I was preparing to spend time with God, but my mind was cluttered. There were some things that had been lingering for weeks that I had not “gotten around to”, but they needed to get done.  As I went to pray, some of those things popped in my head, like a pop-up window on a computer screen.

I put my prayer time on pause, took care of the things that needed to be done, resumed,  and was able to experience great clutter-free time with God – where life is, and power, and answers.

When you are in prayer and stuff comes in your mind, don’t ignore it.  If it is evil, rebuke it.   But, if it is stuff that you know you need to do, talk to God about it and then obey Him.   It could be that you need to get those things done in order to please God.

God help us to learn that you care about everything that concerns us.   Help us not to ignore natural reality in the name of being spiritual.  While we don’t allow natural reality to determine our faith, and while we do not look at the things which are seen, there are some natural things that God requires of us.   Seek God and make it happen.  Then, live in the clutter-free presence of the living God!