Discernment: Testing My Own Voice

After nearly a year in a wilderness hiatus, given mainly to healing work and homebound research, I’ve been hearing the call to re-emerge as a messenger given to preparing the way of the Lord. This call came largely through my friends, intercessors and healers so I’m peaking my head out tentatively with a personal discovery for you to consider.

First, I want to let you know that during my hiding time, I’ve completed a new book entitled Her Gates Will Never Be Shut: Hope, Hell and the New Jerusalem. In it, I try to tackle head-on the difficult issue of how we reconcile the mercy of God with divine judgment and hell. Is there hope? You can have a look at the summary and endorsements or even order the book at my website by clicking here: www.bradjersak.com/hergatesfeature.html.

Now to the matter at hand: I have been thinking about our dialogues with God and how we weigh them. What I started noticing is that when the prayer conversation alternates: God, then Brad, then God, then Brad, and so on, I was diligent to test what God was saying. Is the voice of God really God or not God? I would test that voice according to the three-legged stool of the Word, the Body and the Spirit, as recommended in Can You Hear Me?

But I neglected to test MY voice. And why should I? After all, it’s my own voice, isn’t it? Or is it? But when I began to categorize the themes that came under the umbrella of ‘my voice,’ I noticed something. On the one hand, there was the voice that agrees with and responds to God in faith. We could call that the voice of my ‘true heart,’ or the voice of the ‘new creation,’ or the ‘new me.’

On the other hand, there are these other voices that I assumed were my own as well: The voice of condemnation (beating myself up) that would then trigger the voice of self-pity (feeling sorry for myself), and the voices of shame, self-hatred, fear, worry, anger, and so on. In my head, I would hear and say, ‘I am afraid; I am angry; I don’t like myself; I’m not worthy,’ etc. Perhaps you know those voices as well.

And then it occurred to me, esp. as I read the dialogues from prayer journals of about sixty Bible school students, if the voice of my true self loves God and responds in faith and love to the voice of Christ, what are these other voices? On occasion I suppose I could have been hearing an unclean spirit. Or I suppose I might have been dealing with a wound in my heart. But mostly, I found these voices could not be cast out like a demon nor could they be healed like a wound. In fact, my greatest discovery was that those voices were NOT ME at all! ME is my true self. ME is the heart Jesus gave me. ME is the new creation. So what was I hearing that masqueraded as ME?

The Bible calls it the old nature (Rom. 8), the old Adam or Eve, the flesh or desires of the flesh (Gal. 5). In modern terms, we refer to the false self, the ego. My mentor, Ron Dart, calls it ‘the craver’ that underlies all of my cravings, demanding that I feed it but knowing it’s a bottomless pit. It is that vacuous demanding echo of something that was crucified with Christ; something to be reckoned dead (Rom. 6) but still far too talkative in my head; something to be disowned and discredited; marginalized and silenced as far a possible.

How do we silence the voices of the flesh or ego? We’re half way there when we begin to recognize that voice and declare, that’s not me. That’s not the beat of the new heart Jesus gave me. We can step back and hold it at arm’s length and begin to make a practice of disowning it—even to the point of refusing to call it my ego or myflesh. It is an ‘it’ of days gone by.

Besides disowning it, we can discredit the ego’s voice by challenging its motives and its fruit. The flesh or ego always has a motive. For example, when it is accusing you, its motive is pride and self-righteousness and it is punishing you for not living up to its standards of perfection. Your stumbles embarrass and offend the ego, triggering a barrage of condemnation. OR when the flesh lapses into self-pity, its motive is to seduce fleshly sympathy out of others—a deadly counterfeit of compassion that brings death rather than life. The ego can multi-task, both accusing and sulking at the same time, but when we step back quietly and watch that ludicrous inner dialogue, it ceases to be credible.

We also discredit the ego/flesh by challenging its fruit. Jesus called us to test everything, including every voice, by the fruit it produces. In testing the fruit of the ego, we see that when we have listened to it, NOT ONCE has it ever produced a smidgeon—not the slightest sliver—of goodness in our lives. So why give it a voice at all, much less the freedom of speech it currently enjoys under the guise of being ME just because I hear it beaking off inside? It is as if we’ve said, ‘As long as you don’t claim to be God, you can say whatever you want. By pretending to be me, you have free rein because I don’t discern MY voice. I only discern God’s voice.’ The resulting fruit has been most rotten.

I have also noticed that when the dialogue is between God and my true, restored heart, God tends to take the lead in the conversation and I find myself following, responding, led by the Spirit to listen. Conversely, when the ego/flesh dialogues with God (when it lets me, for it aggressively tries to unplug from the conversation through doubt or shame) it consistently tries to control the conversation, attempting to argue God into corners, silence or defensiveness. Here I see his relentless patience on the one hand and the complete waste of time on the other. I want to say, “Ego, would you just get over yourself and listen to what God is saying?” Of course, it never does. The flesh/ego does not really listen and its innumerable arguments are a distraction from where God would like to take the prayer time.

Finally, I do not silence the voice of the ego/flesh by obsessing over it. That only feeds it. Rather, I am learning to give it a brief, passing nod: “I see you, you blood-sucker. But I know what you’re up to and I’m not listening to you today.” And then I quickly move on to listen to the voice of God’s Spirit interacting with the responsive, faith-filled and loving voice of my renewed spirit. 1 Cor. 6:17 goes so far as to say that in uniting with Christ, his Spirit and my spirit become one. I.e. I don’t even need to distinguish between the Holy Spirit and my spirit, because they are in an ascending spiral of heavenly agreement.

True discernment simply means refusing to listen to all that is not God AND all that is not me. To me, this latter half was an ‘aha moment’ that I hope will upgrade our discernment and bring readers fresh freedom as well.

Thanks for reading,

Brad

p.s. If you found this helpful, please consider forwarding it to others.
For more resournces, visit www.bradjersak.com

The God Who Speaks - Nov. 2008

To those who have ears, grace and peace!

Just a brief newsletter this month. As always, I'm the gadfly who doesn't hesitate to remind you to keep listening!

At Fresh Wind, it's been an interesting month of transition. In case you missed it, I now call my pastor 'honey.' I.e. My wife, Eden, with the wonderful support of our leadership team and congregation, is getting the hang of being the 'team leader.' She is taking hold of her calling while I'm learning to let go of the pastoral thing. Currently, I'm working on some book projects for others and travelling a little more ... my way of resting, believe it or not.

In the midst of these changes, it came clear to us that at any given moment God is calling us to 'take hold' of something and to 'let go' of something. For example, we take hold of God's promises in prayer, while at the same time, letting go of control of how the forthcoming answers need to look. This absolutely requires that we are listening carefully, because in the flesh, we will take hold of the wrong things (e.g. we strive, we manipulate, we dictate) and we will let go of the wrong things (e.g. our faith, our hope, our love). When that happens, we end up disappointed and disillusioned, even with prayer itself.

So here's the simple exercise to keep us on track. We ask God these questions:

1. Lord, is there something specific right now that I'm meant to be taking hold of in prayer or in life -- an area where I'm meant to hang in there and keep knocking on heaven's door?

2. Lord, is there something specific right now that I'm meant to be letting go of in prayer or in life -- an area where I'm meant to leave it in your hands and simply release the burden to you?

Both are real acts of faith based on this premise: God is good and what He says is good. As usual, test what you're hearing with the Scriptures, the Church and the Holy Spirit.

Meanwhile, for those interested in the prophetic swirl around the American elections, you may want to have a peak at the last two submissions to www.clarionjournal.typepad.com. Each has a youtube clip that I think are worth seeing in terms of content and tone (regardless of your political affiliations).

Finally, book of the month -- Pilgrim's Process: Essays from the Journey by Brian West (one of my mentors). There's a description of it here: http://www.bradjersak.com/pilgrimfeature.html

Til next time, shalom!

Brad

The God Who Speaks - Oct. 2008

I believe these are the days when God is calling for a very intentional renewal of prophetic purity. One could argue that this is always the case. But then at the very least, it's time for those with ears to hear what such a cleansing entails. Peter Helms and I have presented an article on the Clarion website, entitled "Beyond Cynicism: the Renewal of Prophetic Purity, diagnosing some dysfunctions and offering some proposals re: the whole prophetic movement.

One issue we didn't cover was the problem of mistaken prophetic words. I say 'mistaken' rather than 'false' because I would regard false prophecies as pertaining to drawing people away from Jesus and his Way or from 'the faith once delivered to the saints' through Jesus' apostles. By mistaken prophecies I am referring to those who prophesy in good faith--sharing what they believe God has shown them--but sometimes get it wrong. This seems to be part of the learning curve where we step out in faith to give a word of encouragement (for example), yet find out later that we were mistaken. Such an error does not require a good old public stoning in the New Testament model, but it can still be very painful when we give a word of hope that ultimately proves wrong.

To illustrate, I'm thinking of times when prophetic words about healing did not come to pass and the ailing one or their loved ones were left disappointed or devastated. In those times, we're very vulnerable to despair or cynicism about God's voice... all the more so when the messenger sweeps the error under the carpet, or spins the situation to make the word fit, or blames the mesengee for somehow not facilitating the message's happening. When a mistaken word goes unacknowledged, is this not the true meaning of "taking the Lord's name in vain"? That needs to stop ... especially so among public ministers. But then what shall we do when we inevitably blow it?

How about a simple, straightforward admission and apology. The easiest way to teach this is to model it. About sixteen months ago, while preaching at Fresh Wind, I shared a sense that for some of our families in crisis, the tide was turning. I presented this as something I believed God was saying and I mentioned several specific people. In retrospect, one of the couples I mentioned did NOT see the tide turn (in their case, financially). Some have kindly suggested that perhaps it was a timing issue, but in my mind, there is no spinning or justifying the error. I created an expectancy that something was in the midst of changing and I was plain wrong. It has been disappointing to them and to me ... we've grieved the journey together. Much too late, I have apologized, asked for forgiveness and been released. The fruit is that we continue to listen together, share what we're hearing and weigh it all. It seems to me that mistakes are not nearly so damaging as failing to acknowledge them.

Can I leave that with you as a listening question? Lord, in renewing my prophetic purity, are their any words that I've shared that were simply wrong? Is there anyone who needs an apology for my mistake? Give me grace to boldly make it right.

blessings,

Brad Jersak

Double or Nothing! Anouncement from Brad Jersak

For those who haven't heard yet, we made quite an important and wonderful announcement at Fresh Wind on Sunday, Sept. 15. For those who only have a moment, if you just skim down to the bold letters below, you'll get the basic idea. Let me begin by sharing a visitation that I experienced the night before the announcement that finally gave me some perspective on it.

I came before the Lord in prayer and engaged with something he had been speaking to me through the writings of Hans Urs Von Baltasar. I sensed him say, 'Gaze on me and I will gaze on you. I will see you and see through you and into every part of you. I will open up every door and every drawer of your soul and I will evaluate you. I will judge you thoroughly, even where you would not dare judge yourself. I will see and know what you cannot even see and know. And I will render my verdict of mercy, my sentence of kindness, and my gaze will be adoration.'

Even as I engaged with those words, it was as if the entire front part of my body, soul and spirit opened like doors and drawers ... Things I would never want others to see or know were fully exposed to Jesus' gaze, yet without shame or condemnation. I could sense strongly the character defects of fallen kings like Saul, David and Nebuchadnezzar ... all there within me in their fullness, but available to the Spirit's searchlight. I could feel the deep lack of character, unmasked for him without fear, and the truth that I have been measured and found wanting ... But even in that, my willingness to open my heart and show it to him, hiding nothing, seemed to receive his generous approval.

In that place, God began to show me his secret wisdom. It was amazing because for months and months I have been told to stay in the mines and dwell in the darkness and receive God's secret wisdom. I had no idea what that was and no glimmer of it until now. It finally came ... things to be shared freely with the church that have been utterly inaccessible to the enemy until now. What I saw involved such a blindsiding / ambush / vengeance of the Lord against the accuser that I was became rather euphoric. The two secrets that came were allowed to be unveiled as part of our announcement at Fresh Wind.

First, I saw the intense suffering that so many in our midst have experienced this year. Physical, emotional, spiritual, marital, financial, vocational crushing has overwhelmed so many (just as the Lord forewarned in January). I saw the enemy behind it, pushing, pushing, pushing ... and that we have been pushed to the point of only two options: We would have to either give up (and some have, to the enemy's joy) or let go (which looks the same but is the very opposite, to the Lord's joy). The Lord has taken the terrible risk of allowing this horrendous trial by fire to lead us all the way to this letting go. For those who let go, they are surprised to find that God is waiting to pass them a baton of great purpose. Happily, in their poverty of spirit, they find themselves with empty hands, available to receive God's gift. They could not have received it without having let go and they would not have let go without the suffering.

I've already watched many among us picking up their baton: Eric J picking up the prophetic role, Charles and the Langtons joining the leadership team, Lorie stepping onto the pastoral staff. But others too, like the Collies (and their prayer tent) and Robin at LIFE Recovery or Heather getting healed and starting school to be a nutritionist. And so on. Many have already endured the fire, taken hold of their baton and it felt to me like they had utterly blind-sided the enemy. In his folly, he did not and could not see the courage of the elect. He failed to understand how our blood and God's light create gold of character in the alchemy of Jesus.

And then I saw my baton. I don't know what it is exactly, but I want it. But to have it, I needed to join in the faith of letting go ... And if I let go, let go of what? The prayers and prophetic words of God's people, mixed mysteriously with both the injuries and desires of own my heart, have led me these past weeks to lay down two batons.

After five years, I have now laid down the baton of team leader at Fresh Wind. And after twenty-one years, I have laid down the baton of pastoral vocation. Fresh Wind is still my home and family. I'll continue for now as part of the team and stay on the teaching rotation. I'm not planning to leave, but I've laid down my role as pastor. But there is more. Remember first that Jesus is the leader of our church and that our team operates on a consensus of hearing his heart as best we can. But we also recognize the validity of having a team leader.

To whom would the team offer that baton? Surprise: Unanimously, it seemed good to us and to the Lord to pass it to Eden! (my dear and faithful wife) ...

And here is the secret wisdom in that. In picking up her baton, God is unlocking an enormous storehouse of kingdom strength that had not previously emerged. I believe we have no idea of what she carries. I have no idea. She has no idea. But there is a powder keg that has been lit and I believe what is emerging is a New Testament Esther. The last thing we need is a queen or a high priestess ... but just as the enemy has assaulted the church with the spirit of Jezebel (marked variously by manipulation, domination, control and/or seduction), God's answer far, far surpasses that strategy. He trumps the enemy with the spirit of Esther, by which I mean authority that only comes forward when summoned by her husband, her King and her God in order to minister deliverance of a people. The Esther spirit only lays hands on the King's scepter when invited and never grasps at it or takes it from his hand. Her authority comes because she has the King's ear.

It sounds grandiose, but I believe Eden bears this spirit. The beauty of God's wisdom is this ... the Jezebel spirit often functions to control leaders (like Ahab) or to take them out completely. Even Elijah withered before her. As I sat under God's evaluation, I saw how vulnerable and fragile my own character is ... But with Eden? Well, she smells that stuff a mile away and sees through it (always has). And now that God, through the team, has offered her the baton, I witnessed the enemy receive a serious drubbing. As best I can tell, this way of framing the role-shifting at Fresh Wind came not by reason but as revelation to my open-drawered soul. It left me cheering the wisdom of God. When I shared this with the congregation, they received and affirmed her, then prayed and prophesied over Eden as she received her baton. It was a holy moment charged with surprise and excitement. Just one highlight for me was hearing John Van Vloten say, "We as men welcome your leadership," granting simultaneous submission AND covering. Another joy was to hear Heinz and Doreen Borck saying, "We can follow you. And we have your back."

As for me, I fell asleep again after the visitation, not as Brad the pastor or leader but Brad the man and Bradley the boy, the son. I fell into an old recurring nightmare that always signals inadequacy and I woke up sucking my thumb (for real!), which signals insecurity. And it felt so good. Out of the safe place, out of my comfort zone and in full realization that I'm in over my head again. I'm launching into something I have no idea about. On waking, I heard Brian West's (our founding team leader) cheerful voice chiming inside ... 'Here we go again. Double or nothing!' Oh Lord, you mean I get to risk again? Between God and I, there has never been a guarantee. He has only and always said, 'I'll risk it if you will.' I am a long shot and I know it. I am a high risk investment and that's just how it is. So for now, I retreat to be his boy. I will plug away at the little projects he's given me and wait on the promised new baton..

So that's my story. A new chapter has begun in my family and in my church, entitled, 'Esther emerging.' This should be good.

The Beatitudes are Cross and Resurrection ...

The Beatitudes are the transposition of Cross and Resurrection into discipleship. But they apply to the disciple because they were first paradigmatically lived by Christ himself. -- Pope Benedict XVI

I loved the quote by Benedict. If the beatitudes are the Cross and Resurrected transposed into the life of discipleship, then each "blessed are they that ____" gives us the character and fruit of the company of the crucified, specifically crucified to the demands and dictates of the ego.

And each "they will be _____" shows us what resurrection power infuses into the emptied cup of self.

All of the Beatitudes are therefore really encapsulated in the first one. Poverty of spirit is the Phil. 2 kenosis of the disciple.

We disown and detach from the old Adam (ego, Satan internalized?) and drink a new cup, a bloody cup, a covenant cup.

The promises of the kingdom that follow are not about someday hopes (at least not entirely). They are about access now to the kingdom of heaven dimension where true life is found.

But here was the zinger for me:

As you play out the rest of the Sermon on the Mount, virtually every practice (giving away cloak and tunic, forgiving and blessing enemies, cutting off hands, letting go of stuff, renouncing anger, faithfulness to spouse, and all manner of sacrificial love) ... all of these are consistent deliberate acts that go deeper than a profound social ethic or a way of overcoming the perceived external enemy with meekness. While they ARE that ... what I see is that they are a program that thoroughly strips the ego of all it's attachments, cravings, lusts, pride, impressiveness, etc. ... impoverishing it, assaulting it, and finally detaching from the ego itself ("I am crucified with Christ").

In other words, I use my perceived external enemies to defeat my real inner enemy. The Sermon on the Mount is a Way to become poor in spirit and the fruit of being poor in spirit. It's brilliant. Every handle, every bit of leverage that the flesh could grasp is taken from it systematically.

In that kind of disciple, the Holy Spirit's resurrection life is then given space to be infused.

Gnostic versus Mystic

Thoughts re: Gnosticism versus Mysticism

While both the gnostic and the mystic may embrace a heavenly experience, the gnostic rejects the immanence of God in this realm as impossible and inappropriate. They try to escape this realm because it's very materiality is unclean or illusory (and historically
rejected the incarnation for that reason).

But while I am not a gnostic, I am unapologetically a mystic. That is, I believe in direct interactive fellowship with God both in the heavenly realm (beholding him and approaching him boldly as a beloved child) AND in the earthly realm ("Lo, I am with you always.") He is Lord of heaven and earth and is utterly immanent in our daily lives. I take Jesus' promise, "I will be with you and in you" very literally and seriously.

What has made the presence of Christ real to me -- a constant, conscious awareness of his "withness" -- is the opening of the eyes of my heart to behold him. Peter, quoting David in Ps. 2 said, "I saw the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken." He goes on to speak of how he has been filled with joy in the Lord's presence. 'Presence' is good, but the word translated is more specific: lit. "face". So too with 2 Cor. 3-4 where we get this idea of hearts unveiled, "beholding the glory of God... in the face of Jesus Christ." Modernism would reduce this to an idea, a concept, a notion. The mystic (esp. the Apostle John and his lineage) would say, "No, we really mean it. Our hearts truly see him." This is what made their fellowship with Christ so real ... and how it has become so for me as well. This is not the esoteric, elitist experience of the gnostic, but rather, the promised inheritance of all of God's children.

Discernment then means continually saturating oneself with the Jesus of the Gospels to ensure that the Jesus I behold in my heart or the Jesus I encounter in the streets in the poor are in alignment with the true Lord Jesus of Nazareth. And this is such a joy because then life in the Word, in prayer, in worship -- or in the grocery store or the nursery are all full of the fellowship of 1 John 1!

I thought I'd offer some little quotes by Symeon the New Theologian. (942-1022) By way of background, Father George Mahoney says, "The battle of two opposing views of theology centered around St. Symeon and his mystical apophatic approach of the experiencing of God immanently present to the individual, as opposed to the 'head trip' scholastic theology as represented by Stephen of Nicodemia, the official court of theologian in Constantinople. Stephen represented the abstract, philosophical type of theologizing while Symeon strove to restore theology to its pristine mystical tendency as a wisdom infused by the Holy Spirit." N.B.: the problem with the scholastics was not their love of scholarship, but rather, that they opted for a mediated knowledge of God that denied direct experience. Symeon on the other hand spoke, esp. in the Philokelia (the Eastern Church's favorite theological collection) and in his discourses of his experience of seeing the glorified and risen Jesus:

"[A Christian is] the person who has come to see with the eyes of the spirit and who has beheld the true and quenchless light."

"The person who has not consciously invested his intelligence and intellect with the image of our Lord Jesus Christ, the heavenly one, man and God, is still but flesh and blood."

"Most men believe in the resurrection of Christ, but very few have a clear vision of it. Those who have no vision thereof cannot even adore Christ Jesus [!!] as the Holy One and as Lord... That most sacred formula which is daily on our lips does not say, 'Having believed in Christ's resurrection,' but, 'Having beheld Christ's resurrection, let us worship the Holy One, the Lord Jesus, who alone is without sin.' How then does the Holy Spirit urge us to say, 'Having beheld Christ's resurrection,' which we have not seen, as though we had seen it, when Christ has risen once for all a thousand years ago, and even then without anybody's seeing it? Surely Holy Scripture does not wish us to lie? Far from it! Rather, it urges us to speak the truth, that the resurrection of Christ takes place in each of us who believes, and that not once, but every hour, so to speak, when Christ the Master arises in us, resplendent in array and flashing with the lightnings of incorruptible deity. For the light-bringing coming of the Spirit shows forth to us, as in early morning, the Master's resurrection, or, rather, it grants us to see the Risen One Himself. ... Those to whom Christ has given light as He has risen, to them He has appeared spiritually, He has been shown to their spiritual eyes. When this happens to us through the Spirit He raises us up from the dead and gives us life. He grants us to see Him, who is immortal and indestructible. More than that, He grants clearly to know Him who raises us up and glorifies us with Himself, as the divine Scripture testifies."

Symeon, as an apophatic theologian, tends to emphasize the transcendence of God to the nth degree, speaking more in terms of knowing God by what he is NOT. Apophatic theologians are careful to not make absolute statements about what he IS because that would be too categorical and could put God in the box of our intellectual capacities. However, I would say that we CAN say something of who God is by virtue of the incarnate and resurrected Christ. So without reservation we say, "God is exactly like Jesus. All the glory of the divine godhead has been poured into Christ as eternal living image/icon. And we DO know this God as we know Jesus and we know this Jesus as we behold him."

Further, I'd say as we behold him with spiritual eyes in the heavenlies, our material eyes are invested with spiritual vision to behold him in the HIV baby, the autistic child, 'the homeless, penniless Jesus the Son' (to quote Jason Upton).

Judging versus Judging

"Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. " Matt. 7:1-2

"Do not put out the Spirit's fire; do not treat prophecies with contempt. Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil. " 1 Thess. 5:19-22

"The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's judgment." 1 Cor. 2:15

"For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God." 1 Pet. 4:17

I've been thinking a lot lately about how we must learn to walk in greater discernment these days without stepping into condemnation. Discernment and condemnation are really two types of judging; one is commanded, one is forbidden. Personally, I always tend to come back to "the measure with which you judge will be used on you." I know I want to be loved with tender mercy and a good dose of truth.

More specifically, I think this is what I want for myself and for the ministries where I serve:

1. Personally, I want those who love me (a good prerequisite for judging) to be very very tender, kind, loving, merciful, long-suffering and even careful with my heart. And I want them to be ruthlessly truthful with my ego and its selfish, self-seeking, self-centered, self-aggrandizing, self-debasing, self-sabotaging ways.

2. Corporately, I want those who love us to be equally tender, kind, loving, merciful and long-suffering with the people involved in our ministry and with the authentic revelation that we carry. But I want them to be ruthlessly truthful in sifting through the wood, hay and stubble of any part of our fellowship that represents a system built on sand, engages in spiritual abuse, or binds and blinds us from God's kingdom in any way.

With this in mind, these are the days to examine ourselves and the whole realm of Christendom, resisting the powerful urge to quench the Holy Spirit by condemning the fallen, by being cynical rather than open, or by rejecting the authentic ministries that always come via vessels of clay.

At the same time, we say an emphatic NO to any aspects of our Christian cultural systems that measure a movement's 'anointing' according to the drawing power of the masses, or to the charisma of its leaders, or to the glam of sensational ministries. We ought to resist every measure of spiritual success through typical capitalist criteria: e.g. size of crowds, increase in growth, structural power, dollar figures, etc.

There is a new openness to correction across the whole prophetic movement right now. We dare not squander it by scapegoating individual leaders who are struggling as if the system that built their pedestals were just fine.

This begs a broader and important question: what are the marks of a revival? What is revival? What are the fruits of a revival? Are revivals something Jesus taught us to pursue?

I've been really pondering Jesus' vision of the kingdom and his response to questions about that in Luke 17: "The kingdom will not come with signs you can observe. You will not be able to say 'here it is' or 'there it is'. The kingdom is within/among you." It is as if Christ foresaw revival theology as a poor alternative to his kingdom theology and was trying to warn us, right?

Jesus' mustard seed parables make the kingdom out to come as grassroots movements that emerge from below like seeds spread in fields of humble hearts. By contrast, even the healthiest looking revivals are more like centers where you go to get a bite of magic bread that someone brings back from heaven, hoping you can bypass character growth and the riggers of a discipleship journey in favor of a fix. We call this shortcut an 'impartation.'

Now large meetings where Christ is preached, the sick are healed and the oppressed are set free are not necessarily the problem. Jesus had such meetings. And often a pilgrimage does the heart good. But the issue is the mindset of the crowds who come seeking ... what? A miracle drug to fast-track discipleship or provide a periodic liver-shiver ... unto what? Or conversely, there are the promises of the marketeers. "Fly here and get the power; receive the experience and take it home." I.e. the kingdom is over there and is observable with signs (the very opposite of Jesus' own words).

This needs more thought.

The God Who Speaks -- Aug. 2008

Dear God-seeker,

Lately, a couple of friends each left me with a principle of discernment that suggested some important questions that we might present to the Father. I thought you might find them helpful too.

First, there is a principle of faith. It suggests that when God speaks, it will usually be a call to faith--a call either to greater or deeper trust in some aspect of who God is (e.g. greater trust in his faithfulness or his care for us, etc.) OR a call to follow God outside the boundaries of my personal comfort zone. This is challenging since our natural tendency is self-protection ... but the voice of God calls us beyond ourselves so that He can offer us as gifts to this world. Will we follow?

Two questions follow this principle:

1. God, what is it about you that you want me to believe in a deeper way? And why?
2. God, is there some kingdom territory beyond my comfort zone where you want me to follow you? Another way to ask this could be, "If you could offer me as a gift to the world, what would that look like?"

Second, there is a principle of fellowship. 1 John draws a direct connection between truly walking in the light, fellowship with Christ AND walking in fellowship with each other. Check this out:

"3 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 5 ...God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin."

I believe this goes further than simply saying, "No lone-ranger prophets." Sometimes sincere seekers expend a lot of time, energy, travel and money to pursue a prophetic message from the "big guns" regardless of any relationship with them. Perhaps we feel validated by those words we receive from famous or popular or powerful ministers. Question: How's that working for us?

What I am getting at is that EVEN IF the prophets we follow are genuine, credible, accurate and specific--I mean TRUE prophets--there is a real issue of fellowship when it comes to how much authority we give them in our lives. What we hear from them can be very encouraging and comforting and confirming. But it ought NOT be our daily bread. The biblical norm is that walking in the light of revelation happens in community fellowship.

By following this principle, we refrain from setting the Christian celebrities on pedestals that we will later kick out from under them in our frustration or disillusionment when things don't go our way.

This principle is especially true when it comes to words of correction, discipline and rebuke. I've learned the hard way that the words that come as a blow ought to come from a friend. If I know they love me and watch my back, then the sword of the Lord can penetrate my heart without abusing it.

This leads to our third question:

3. Lord, where and with whom is my fellowship solid enough that I can receive both words of direction and words of correction? I.e. Where would you have me walk in the light of fellowship?

Blessings all!

Brad