Over the past 27 years of walking with Jesus, one thing is consistent–I often find myself in the open space.  He calls you out of one thing before he shows you the next thing.  The most dramatic instance of this was when I came to New England.  I was completely moved out of old apartment in Ohio before I even knew where I was headed.  This is not “normal” and it is not the way I would like things.  The Lord closes the door.  Then He tells you how to find the next one.

I am sure the disciples felt that way when they stood up on the Mount of Olives and looked toward heaven.  They watched Jesus ascend into heaven and then they were told to wait.  We know that they waited ten days, but those folks didn’t know how long they would be waiting.  We know that they grew impatient because of the lottery used to choose Matthias.  Often we get the sense that we need to “do something” to make God fill in the open space in our life.  Probably the most tragic moment like this in scripture is the moment when Samuel delayed, and Saul took it upon himself to make a sacrifice.  Saul’s need to “make it happen” cost him the kingdom, his legacy, and the favor of God. Unfortunately, most of us think that Saul’s action (and Peter’s) are sensible decisions in the heat of the moment.  We are not comfortable with the open space, and need to fill it.  Nature abhors a vacuum.

The truth is, God is not Nature.  And God likes vacuums.  He likes to create big gaps in our lives so that He can fill them with Himself.  He doesn’t want to fight for the right to reside somewhere.  He wants to make it very clear that there are no rivals in the space He enters.  He makes open space.

I’m sure that the disciples thought “what’s next!?”  How can this kingdom continue without Jesus?  How can they do anything without his presence going with them?  They did not understand that the gospel was going to flow from the inside out.  His Presence would go with them, but would be in them.  That open space created at the Ascension was going to be filled in a glorious way, by fire, by love, by grace.

Allowing God to make open spaces in your life is scary business.  Even more scary is living with that open space until God fills it with the next thing.  The temptation to run ahead of God is everywhere.  But, if we wait, we are given a wonderful promise.  You will mount up with wings like eagles.  You will run and not grow weary.  You will walk and not grow faint.   It is miracle working power, and it is only available to those willing to walk into the open space.

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Adjusted for inflation and exchange the amount equals $605,536.08.

Recently I have been reading a lot about Rees Howells.  Like George Muller, he was committed to living by faith.  Here is his financial statement from 1938-1939.  That year he built a Bible College in Wales solely on prayer.  This was the year after the worst year of the Great Depression, and just months before the start of World War II.

Jesus, thank you for your presence. Thank you that you love me. Thank you that you like me. Thank you that you rewrite my history. Thank you that your blood erases all the unanswered prayers. Thank you that your blood can enter into every memory that I carry and you can erase the effects of poverty, sickness, failure, and discouragement.

I confess that I have allowed disappointment, offense, and the seeds of disbelief to take hold in my heart, and these have become hard places that hinder my prayers.  I ask you now to forgive that sin, and to enter into all of these disappointments, change my history, heal my memory, and remove the hardness of my heart.

Holy Spirit, I ask you to quicken in me a new gift of Faith.  Release in me a fresh sense of Hope.  Baptize me with a new experience of your Love.  Pour your clean water upon me, and restore my heart of flesh.

Lord, I now come before you and pray for my needs anew and afresh, as if I have never prayed for them before.  Thank you that you will answer my prayers, because you are good.

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Probably most true is the Resurrection. As I have stated many times this year, God works from the inside out.  The inside out reality is the core of the New Covenant reality. This reality was purchased on the cross, and confirmed in the Resurrection. As Paul tells us in Romans 8:11, “If the Spirit of him who raised Christ Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit who dwells in you.”

Jesus was raised from the dead by the Ruach, the breath of God, the same breath that gave Adam life. Jesus was resurrected from the inside out. And then, after receiving this life, he breathed on his disciples, and they received the Holy Spirit. His life giving power, his breath, his Spirit, gave them life. That life was power.

My friend and professor Bob Tuttle used to say “I am charismatic because I believe that the same power that operated in Jesus and the disciples is available to me today.” That’s the promise of much of the New Testament. That same Spirit is available to you, from the inside out to give you life.

As I was returning to my vocation as an artist after years of seminary, I was drawn to Orthodox icons. They were exotic, colorful, and mysterious. I spent a season painting them, in the original method with raw eggs, dry colors, and teeny tiny brushes. My favorite subject was the “Anastasis.” This icon represents not only the event, but the the theology of the Resurrection.  The literal translation of the greek name Anastasis is “Anti-death.” This picture represents the core of New Testament reality.

In the center is Jesus. He is clothed in the Resurrection garments of white or gold to represent his glorified body. His hands and feet are pierced. Around him is a blue field–the glory of God. Originally this was painted with lapis lazuli, the most expensive color. Under His feet are the broken down gates of hell. The keys and shackles of death and hell are falling into the abyss. From the sides are the Hebrew saints, being freed from Sheol. In this example David, Solomon, and John the Baptist look on from the left, and Moses, Elijah, and Elisha look from the right. They are discussing and responding to the central action in the scene. Jesus has taken Adam and Eve by the hand, and in the process of his rising again has begun to raise them up.

Jesus didn’t rise from the dead to prove his point or make sure you go to the sweet by and by. Jesus didn’t rise from the dead to give you a “try harder gospel with Jesus on top.” Jesus rose from the dead so that the same Spirit that raised him–the same Spirit that gave Adam life, could pulse through you. Jesus rose from the dead so that he could grab you by the arm, pull you up out of the abyss, break down the gates of hell in your life and make you a prophet, priest, and king.

The same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is the same Spirit available to you today. You can experience the Resurrection, you can breath in the Life of God.
“Yes, but how?” you may ask. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus put it simply.
Ask, seek, and knock. To the one who asks, the answer is given. The one who seeks finds, and the one who knocks gets an open door. And the Father will give the Holy Spirit to all who ask.

If you want to experience the Resurrection life of Jesus, try this.  Put your hand on your heart, take a deep breath, and pray this simple prayer.

“Jesus, thank you that you are in me, and I am in you. If I am in you then I am in my Father, and my Father is in me. Come Holy Spirit. I surrender to you.”

Quietly thank God and praise Him.  It’s that simple.   As you learn to live in that reality, you begin to abide.  And that is where the life is, living in Jesus, living in the Holy Spirit, living in the Resurrection.

The Christian community in many parts of the world has chosen to stand with Israel today. In my regular prayers I pray this intercession for Israel and Jerusalem based on texts from Scripture.  For clarity, I have removed the verse references.  Please join us in prayer for Israel and Jerusalem.

Father, You are the God of Israel, and they are Your people. You named them, though they did not know You. 

Lord, cleanse them from their iniquities, and pardon all of their sins.  Save them with an everlasting salvation.  Raise them up in righteousness, and direct all their ways.  Redeem Israel out of all of their troubles. Be a shelter for Your people, and the strength of the children of Israel. Bring health and healing to them and to their land, Revealing to them Your abundance of peace and truth. Let the eyes of their understanding be enlightened.  Give them the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let Israel be to You a name of praise, and an honor before all the nations of the earth. Proclaiming all the good You do for them, and causing fear and trembling among the nations, because of all the goodness and prosperity You provide for it. Restore everything that has been removed from them. Send them grain and new wine and oil to satisfy them. Make their enemies to be at peace with them and no longer let them be a reproach among the nations. Seek out Your sheep and deliver them from the peoples and countries where they were scattered, and bring them to their own land. I pray for the peace of Jerusalem, may they prosper that love you. Lord, cause their enemies to cease from the land. Make them and the places all around Jerusalem a blessing, and cause showers of blessings to come down in their season.  Let Your people dwell safely in their land, delivered from trouble from all the kingdoms of the earth.

Psalm 105:19 has a “throw away line” that sums up Joseph’s entire life:  “until what he said came to pass, the Word of the Lord tested him.”  From what I can tell, this one verse sums up about 35-40 years.

When Joseph was a boy he had a dream, and in the dream he symbolically saw his family bowing down to him.  Frankly, it made his brothers so mad they threw him into a pit, pretended he was murdered, and sold him into slavery.  Talk about a dysfunctional family.

For the next few decades Joseph gets forced into hard labor, he becomes a household slave, he gets falsely accused of sexually assaulting his boss’s wife, get’s thrown into prison, get’s brought before Pharaoh, and becomes the most powerful man in Egypt!  Whew, what an adventure.  Through it all, God never fulfills the word.  Yet in the midst of all of the adventures, the word doesn’t go away.  When God speaks a word to you, it sticks in your side.  You can’t let go of it, and it begins to shape you.   Being shaped hurts, because it requires change.  Change is always painful.

In the end, Joseph’s brothers and his parents do bow down to him.  Through that word when he was a boy, the stage is set for the Exodus.

Why does the Word test us?  When we receive a word from God it does two things,  it calls us up and out of ourselves, and begins to work in us our destiny.  Joseph may have been content to be a shepherd like his family if he had never been called to something greater.  At the same time, the word began to reveal, right from the beginning, Joseph’s weak character.  By living with an unfulfilled word, a person begins to measure themselves against the word, and they begin to accept that things have to change in order for them to be trusted.  The word tests you to build in you character.  When the word finally did become reality, Joseph could handle most of it.  It’s clear that he had changed dramatically as a person.

In the story of Joseph we see the creative power of the Word of God.  The word created the man who would be Joseph.

I have lived with several words that have tested me for some time.  The first is a word that I would help lead a major great awakening one day.  I have lived with that word for 24 years.  Let me tell you, looking back I am glad the word wasn’t fulfilled even 10 years ago. I had major gaps in my character that would have short-circuited the word’s fulfillment, and probably hurt many people in the process.  By God’s grace I was allowed to be tested away from the public eye.  Sometimes I wonder about the years, and the failures, that Scripture overlooks in Joseph’s life.

Seven years ago God gave me a word about owning a house.  Over the next year he showed me that the house would be used for prayer, for refuge, and for artists as a center of worship.  He also showed me that I would be responsible for great amounts of money.  Even more than that word from 1988, these words have tested me.  I have made more than one mistake as I lived with these words.  Like Joseph, I have learned you have to be careful about how and when you talk about promises God gives you.

One critical thing I have learned is that a word from God is not a merely human vision.  You can take steps to make a vision become reality.  In contrast, there is nothing you can do to make a word from God reality outside of saying “yes” to God.  At best you will get an Ishmael, and you will have more problems in the end than promises.   As I wrote last week, there is no “10 Easy Steps for a Successful Virgin Birth.”

In my pilgrimage, I have experienced some dramatic tests.  Three years ago God used me to spearhead the Red Envelope Project.  I experienced more attention and more criticism than ever before in my life.  In the end over three and half million empty red envelopes were sent to the President.  Although at the time it was hard, I know that I handled that situation exactly as God instructed me.  The biggest part was letting it go and not trying to build a successful “creature” out of it.

This past year God took me on an adventure with a local crisis pregnancy center.  Part of my time there was leading a major fundraising campaign.  The Lord told me to pray for an amount of money that was really beyond anything anyone would have set as a goal (actually, about 4 times a normal goal).  For weeks, and with a lot of sweat, I prayed for this amount.  Finally, the day came, and one individual wrote a check for $200,000.  That check was exact answer to my prayer.

Through these experiences I was shaped and tested.  Although they were not the fulfillment of the words, they were clear indications of how much money, responsibility, and instruction from the Lord I could handle.  I think that’s what Potiphar’s wife was about–would Joseph do the right thing.  He passed that test.  But there were other areas that needed changing.  I am sure he often thought while he was in the prison “What if I had just done the easy thing?”  My guess is the story would have been different, and he would have been a Samson–a footnote to the story rather than a chapter.

God is calling us all to be chapters in salvation history.  Has God given you a promise that is a little beyond your ability or your circumstances?  The bigger the word, the bigger the test, and bigger the victory in the end. God wants you to succeed.  Psalm 105:22 sums up Joseph’s testing, and why it happened:  “to instruct his princes at his pleasure, and to teach his elders wisdom.”  Testing gives us something to give away.

I like how the apocryphal book the Wisdom of Solomon puts it:

“Having been disciplined a little, they will receive great good,  because God tested them and found them worthy of himself; like gold in the furnace he tried them, and like a sacrificial burnt offering he accepted them.  In the time of their visitation they will shine forth, and will run like sparks through the stubble. They will govern over nations and rule over peoples, and the Lord will reign over them forever.” (Wisdom 3:5-8)

There was a family in a church in Texas that seemed to be in a continual cycle of crisis.  Although they attended church, there was always a financial problem, major health issues, conflicts, unemployment and drama.  After prayer, it was decided that everyone in the church was to come to the home of this family and they were instructed to do two things: each one was to bring $20, and they were going to pray in tongues for one hour.

Over 200 people showed up to this little church.  Their offering raised over $4000 dollars for this family, and paid off their outstanding bills.  Then the crowd packed itself into their little house.  They stood in the bathtub, and crammed into closets, and went into the cellar.  Then they began to pray as a body in the Spirit for one hour.  When the hour was up, the church people left.

Within a day all the unemployed members of the family found jobs.  The cycle of drama was broken.  Along with this, people began coming to their door and asking “I saw the fire from the highway, and I came to see what was going on.  Where’s the fire?”

Where’s the fire indeed.  That’s the power of offering.

The truth is, God trusts us.  He trusts that if we live in him, and he lives in us, then we are going to eventually be transformed through His Word made flesh in us.  Yes, I know that sounds pretty dangerous, but listen to these words in Scripture:

I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.  And no longer shall each man teach his neighbor and teach his brother, saying, “know the Lord,” for they shall all know me from the least to the greatest, says the Lord, and I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.  (Jeremiah 31:33b-34)

And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances. (Ezekiel 36:27)

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. (John 16:13a)

Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words.  And he who searches the hearts of men knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.  (Romans 8:26-27).

. . .but the anointing which you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you; as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie, just as it has taught you, abide in him. (1John 2:27)

So, if we remain aware of the Presence of Jesus–the Holy Spirit–in us, he will begin to guide us and teach us.  This constant relationship will begin to direct our steps, transform our actions and shape our lives.

Ahh, but there is the rub.  It demands a constant relationship.  If we are going to live from the inside out, and have the Law living in our hearts, we have to be constantly listening for him, developing our inward relationship with him, and spending time in that secret place with him.  It’s easier to follow the rules.

Not only is it not easier, it is harder to control people when they are listening to God.

Mary, when she said “yes” to Gabriel, entered into this New Covenant reality.  In a very concrete way she became the living embodiment of God living inside of you.  It’s no wonder that she would later be called “Queen of Prophets” because her pregnancy was a prophetic sign of what God wanted to do in each believer.  But her response was dangerous.  She could have been put to death for being found pregnant before marriage.  Somehow, she stepped outside the established rules, listened to God and allowed him to take over.  There were no “10 Simple Rules for a Successful Virgin Birth.”  She had to rely on God.

Likewise, God might call you to something strange or unexpected.  He might call you to leave convention, give up a good job, make decisions that seem foolish to some, go against the established church culture, or even choose God’s direction over the direction of a church leader.  But, that decision, to listen to the Lord, and do what he tells you, is the path to life.  And throughout history there are men and women who chose that path.  We call them saints.

Oddly, the church community, who largely missed this New Covenant reality, treated many of those “Inside Out” Christians like the Old Testament prophets who were martyred by the religious establishment of Israel.  I think of John of the Cross–locked in a cabinet for over a year by his fellow monks.  And there isn’t time to speak of the Protestant reformers who didn’t even grasp the depths of this truth, but still challenged the prevailing religious system.  It’s dangerous to believe that God can guide you into all truth, and it is dangerous to let God guide somebody else.

Of course there is false teaching, and I think one reason we have the inspired Scripture is to give a clear base line of what truth is.  God is not going to (as some apostate ecclesiastes have claimed) direct people to do things he calls abominable.  He is not going to tell you to lie, cheat, gossip, worship idols, or any other weird thing.  And He has given us a clear body of interpretation of the Bible to help us when the text is not clear.  But all the memorized Scripture and its interpretation in the world can’t replace a living vital relationship with the One who is the Word.

I guess God is bigger and more dangerous than we even imagine, that He has enough faith in a fallen humanity to live in them.  He must know something about us that we have yet to grasp.  He must know that ultimately the Sons of God will be revealed, and that when that happens all creation will rejoice.  And we will experience more than we could ever ask or imagine.  The Inside-Out is the place of freedom somewhere in the human heart.   It is that dangerous place of freedom with a dangerous God.