The Power of Offering

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Last week I heard a story that was attributed to Graham Cooke.  I haven’t gotten all of the details, and I hope that I am not stretching this too far.  Since I have met and interacted with Graham Cooke on several occasions, I have reason to believe that this story is true, and that it probably came from him.

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.

 

Dangerous Reality

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I continue to ponder the Reality of Christ in you–the Inside Out gospel.  This idea, summarized in Colossians 1:27, is Christ in you, the hope of glory.  Paul called this a glorious mystery–something profound, hard to understand, and intensely important.  God’s plan from the very beginning was to put Himself into human flesh.  His plan was never to make a religious system to control people.  As I recently shared at a church in the Boston area–most Christians assume that Christianity is a lot of rules with “Jesus on top.”  The Bible says that Christianity is supposed to be frail human beings with Jesus inside–and he becomes the rule.  As Bill Johnson says again and again, Jesus Christ is perfect theology.  If Jesus Christ is allowed to live fully within a person, then his perfect theology is going to begin to impact and transform that person.   Because of this, his life, health, and freedom can burn within a frail human being and make them a lot like Himself.

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.

You Can’t Whoop It Up

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Looking back, the summer of 1988 determined the course of my life more than any other.  That summer I read two books.  The first was Why Revival Tarries, by Leonard Ravenhill.  The second was Prayer: Key to Revival by David Yonggi Cho.  The first book stirred my passion and hunger for revival.  The second introduced me to prayer empowered and directed by the Holy Spirit.  Through the pitfalls and mistakes of the past 24 years, the core of these two books has stayed with me, and I have returned to their messages again and again.

In 1992 I heard an interview with Leonard Ravenhill, and at that time he felt that the amount of prayer happening would result in a worldwide revival in less than 10 years.  He was partially correct.  Throughout the world there is revival happening.  Toronto burst on the scene two years after that interview.  At the same time, things in the United States have seemed to get worse.

Truthfully, there is more prayer happening in this country than anytime in my lifetime.  Throughout the late 1980’s and early ’90’s I committed to fasting one day a week and praying at least an hour a day for revival.  My friends thought I was nuts, and it was not uncommon for people to say “Why are you fasting?  You need to eat or you will die!”   No one ever envisioned that one day scores of people would make extended fasts a part of their normal life.  Outside of Mike Bickle’s church no one envisioned round the clock prayer either.  Now both are on the verge of becoming mainstream.

So why hasn’t the Third Great Awakening happened?  I think there are a few reasons.  As a note, I believe that there is a worldwide awakening happening–and I even believe that a broad revival has been quietly happening in the United States for some time.  But, as yet, there has not been the spark that erupts into a culture changing move of God.

The first reason is simple.  You can’t “whoop it up.”  There are men and women out there who believe that if you spend extended times in prayer, or “contend” for a “breakthrough,” or any number of other activities, you can move God to cause revival.  The primary reason to spend extended time in prayer is to spend time with God, and the second reason is to minister to God.  Prayer is ultimately about building a relationship and getting to know a person.  That Person happens to be the Creator of the Universe.  Unfortunately, many folks get into extended prayer to get something from God.  I think that’s why a lot of prayer for revival has produced so little fruit.  The truth is, God wants revival more than you do.

You can’t manipulate a revival into existence through prayer because that is performance based religion.  It is not based in grace.  We have grown so accustomed to “making things happen” through all sorts of techniques, but we have neglected the reality that it is the Holy Spirit who makes revival.  He is the one who brings the move of God, and we can’t make Him respond to our whims.  Manipulating the spiritual realm through our activity is one thing, and one thing only–witchcraft.  Paul even said this in Galatians 3:1 when he reproved them for trying to finish the work of the Holy Spirit in the flesh.  We can’t finish a work of the Spirit in the flesh.  Neither can we start a work in the Spirit in the flesh.

The second reason relates to the first, and has to do with the kind of work God is beginning.  God is looking at the interior, at the heart.  He is looking for those who will go low.  This new move of God is about God working from the inside out, not the outside in.  I mentioned in an earlier post that we are not going to see a sin-based revival this time.  Since the nineteenth century, most of the revivals have been marked by the public confession of sin.  As Bill Johnson has noted, the problem with this kind of revival is it depends on sin to continue.  That is not to say that repentance and turning to God will not be part of what happens–there is grave sin all around us, and repentance will be necessary.

I believe that the next move of God is going to be marked by a deep humility, and an acceptance of the truth that many in the church fail to understand.  It is the Presence of Jesus, the Word made flesh in us that will change us as individuals, and in turn change culture around us.  This isn’t a new teaching, but it is one that has been neglected.  In order to embrace it, you have to surrender.

For years when I heard the word “surrender” I thought it meant coming forward at a meeting.  That’s not surrender.  Surrender is admitting that you are in a mess that is bigger than you can solve.  It is admitting that only God can get you out of the mess, and only God can show you what to do next.  It means that one more prayer meeting, one more study course, one more program, or one more conference won’t make it any better.  Only letting the presence of Jesus out to flow through me can make it better.   Coming to that place is fundamentally different than trying to “whoop up” a revival.

II Chronicles 7:14 instructs us that if we humble ourselves and pray God will hear from heaven and heal our land.  For 24 years I have seen people quote that verse, but they only followed the “pray” part, and not the humble yourself part.  Ah, “there’s the rub.”

A month ago I repeated a little exercise that I did in college.  I took a white piece of paper out of my desk, I signed and dated it, and I presented it to God.  It was my contract.  That white piece of paper is the outward sign that I am surrendered to letting Jesus live through me.  Honestly, everything isn’t better, but I am more aware that Jesus is in me and living through me than ever before.  More and more, I feel less dull and under the spell of the world around me.

I encourage you to join me in this “white paper revolution” of surrendering to God.  If you  are in, send me an email at belonginghouse@gmail.com.

O Holy Spirit, come like a mighty rushing wind and awaken us out of our complacency, our apathy, and our indifference.  Disturb us, for we are too content to let people go on not knowing you.  Penetrate the closed gates of our hearts and make us live again.  O Holy Spirit, create among us a mighty Christian revolution and cast the fear of the unknown out of our lives.

Thanks for reading my posts, the past few have really touched a nerve.  My hit numbers have gone up dramatically.  If you like what I am writing, I encourage you to subscribe.