Hey, Sweet Things!
I’m writing this post to you on Saturday night from the seat of a gigantic United Airlines plane on my connect flight from DC back to Houston. The Living Proof Live team and I had the tremendous privilege of serving in Providence, Rhode Island and God worked in such a distinct way that I will remember it for many years. I hope forever. God is doing something different this year at LPL. I don’t quite know how to define it but I have been flat-on-my-face grateful that He is not only still in it but stirring the pot. Not one of us on the team wants to be there a moment longer than Jesus is. We don’t even want Him to make an obligatory “appearance” because He loves us and feels sorry for us after we’ve scheduled all of this. We want the event to be proactively Jesus for His own sake and for His own glory and because it is a delight to Him and because He looks forward to it. Nothing less than that and, if it’s not that, we want Him to move us each elsewhere.
It’s so strange. We began this year looking back to the previous 15 but, by our 3rd event, it was like we all fixed our faces forward as if nothing in the world mattered but what was in front of us. No “yesterday’s plan.” No “yesterday’s work.” This is today. Something is up. Something new to us. There is something liberating and also a little frightening about just saying to Him, “Do what You want, God. Anything You want. We’re in it with You or we’re not in it at all. All bets are off.” Anyway, I’m not sure why I went off on all of that. God just really has my eyebrows high on my forehead right now wondering what He’s doing.
I have a group of about 30 of you Siestas fresh on my mind because we met up quickly after the event for our group picture. These were your northeastern sisters and the cutest things you can imagine. Well, just like all of you are. All ages and types, with this one glorious bond: the lively love of Jesus Christ. I am so crazy about you guys. I cannot fathom the grace of God to have stirred up a community of encouragement in Christ where relationships really do seem to have some substance to them. It’s an anomaly that still isn’t wasted on me.
You have marked my journey of faith. You’ve encouraged me and made me want to keep running my race energetically and earnestly. You’ve helped me get back up even at times when you didn’t know I was down. You have been a harbor of joy, peace, and laughter in an online Christian world that can be astonishingly fractured. You are a corner of courageous gentleness in a culture that has lost its manners.
And, good grief, you guys have impacted my Scripture memory life so dramatically that I hardly have words. After every Living Proof Live when we meet up for our (clandestine) Siesta picture, I always ask, “Will I be seeing any of you in January at our SSMT celebration?” Invariably there are those who answer with infectious enthusiasm, “YES!” It makes me so happy. The previous celebrations have been like a family reunion on steroids. I hope so much you’re staying up with your Scripture memory, saving your money, and planning to head to Houston that weekend. We aren’t really a beautiful city but we’re a happy one and a hospitable one, I believe I can confidently say. And we can offer you Tex Mex at virtually every four way stop. I mean, what more could you want, people?
The verse I’ve chosen this time around is one God seemed to lift from the page of my early morning Scripture reading last Monday. I continued to say it and pray it throughout the week and referenced it several times this weekend in Providence. It’s easy to memorize and it puts a concept in a nutshell that is as vital as breath to us in this believing life we’re living. Here it is:
Beth, Houston. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power. 1 Corinthians 4:20 NIV
God is using it to remind me that this thing isn’t about incessant chatter and nonstop Twitter noise and learning to speak fluent Christianese. It’s not tantamount to Bible banter and doctrinal debates and holy hair-splitting. It’s not about getting together at church and threatening week after week to live changed lives and think renewed thoughts. It’s not about getting all lathered up and sweaty-headed at events over theories of effective, influential, and abundant lives. This Christ thing to which we’ve been called is about actually doing it and through an unction not remotely our own.
When the Holy Spirit comes, He comes with power.
Where the Holy Spirit goes, He goes with power.
Whom the Holy Spirit infiltrates, He infuses with power.
Our lives were meant to be powerful. Less talk. More demonstration. Through things like a love that we know good and well is utterly beyond us and a faith that emerges in tact from a minefield soaked in blood and strewn with flesh. We were meant to be able to do what we can’t, like who we don’t, bless who we’d curse. We were promised strength in weakness and extravagant grace in our deprivation.
We were meant to wonder what has derailed or gone awry when a season of our lives persists in powerlessness for weeks on end. We were promised more than this. We’re not meant to write our own personalized chapters in a revised standard version of The Emperor’s New Clothes so the world could have a harder laugh at us. We who have placed our trust in Christ Jesus, the living, breathing-on-us Son of God, have been clothed with power from on high. (Luke 24:49) And it’s supposed to show.
Every limb of our lives where we welcome the Holy Spirit can be infused with strength not of this world and, yes, even in continued weakness or infirmity, should that be the case of our present calling. The coexistence of the two is the mystery of it. We’re not superwomen. We’re a long shot from perfect. But we were meant to be vividly powerful through the One who saved us and made Himself at home in us. Let’s not forget that today. Let’s not be satisfied just to talk about it. Let’s not just clap and cheer during that part of a service when a pastor or teacher tells us we’re called more than conquerors. The New Testament is not the theory of Christianity.
You may feel powerless right now, Sister, but, if you are in Christ, make no mistake: you are not. Get some backbone back in your prayer life if your spiritual spine has deteriorated. With reverence for His holiness and with the boldness He said we could bring to the Throne of Grace, read to God from His Word where He promised His people victory as they looked to Him alone…
…and where He promised to clothe us in power
…and where He said He’d make Himself conspicuous through our spiritual gifts and through supernatural works in His Name.
If you don’t know where those places are, go hunt them down. (But you could start in Romans 8, Luke 24, Acts 1, Acts 2, 1 Corinthians 12 and Hebrews 4.)
Tell Him you’re going to ask for it and ask for it and ask for it in His great Name and for His glory until He gives it to you and frees you from whatever this present powerlessness is. And then DO IT. Ask and ask and ask and tell Him you will do whatever it takes to cooperate and mean it! Throw your hands out to receive. And, then, when He gives it – and He will – don’t take credit for it. Appreciate it. Thank Him and thank Him for it. Know that it’s grace. Use it audaciously to bring Him attention.
Sister, you cannot fulfill your foreordained purpose without power. Go back after it but, whatever you do, don’t try to get it without Jesus coming with it. Power for power’s sake will blow you up. God-given unction isn’t meant to just come and go with periodic personal revival. We were meant to live powerful lives. Let’s get to them. If you’ve got an area of carnality that is quenching it, I promise you it’s not worth it. Believe me, I’ve been there. Repent, turn from it and get on with it. You’ve got a calling. And it takes divine power.
You mean so much to me. Hold tight to Jesus.
Tags: Scripture Memory 2013
Hannah,
Lake Charles, LA
For the Kingdom of God is not just a lot of talk; it is living by God’s power.”
1 Corinthians 4:20 NLT
Johnnie, Wake Forest, NC
For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power. I Cor. 4:20 ESV
Janet from Odessa, TX
and don’t give the Devil an opportunity.
Ephesians 4:27 HCSB
Margaret Ann, Pacific Junction, IA:
Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
1 Corinthians 6:9-10 ESV
By day the LORD directs his love,
at night his song is with me
a prayer to the God of my life.
Pslam 42:8
Gretchen, Gahanna, Ohio–My word goes out from my mouth. It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
Isaiah 55:11 NIV
Marsha R. Lexington Park, MD
As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.
James 2:26 NIV
HALLELUJAH James 2 finished!!!
Shannon Pate
Little Rock, Arkansas
“For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.”
1 Corinthians 4:20 NIV
Suzy, Wheelersburg, OH -I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved my and gave Himself for me. Galatians 2:20 NIV
Psalm 73:25, 26 NIV
“Whom have I in heaven you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”
Laura Hagedorn, Wausau WI., Wisdom has built her house; she has set up[a] its seven pillars. She has prepared her meat and mixed her wine; she has also set her table. She has sent out her servants, and she calls from the highest point of the city, “Let all who are simple come to my house!” To those who have no sense she says, “Come, eat my food and drink the wine I have mixed. Leave your simple ways and you will live; walk in the way of insight.” Proverbs 9:1-6 NIV
Suzy, Wheelersburg, OH -I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. Galatians 2:20 NIV
Janene from Sibley, Louisiana
For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.
I Corinthians 6:20 KJV
Kathy – Carrollton TX
2 Corinthians 5:10. NLT
For we must all stand before Christ to be judged. We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in this earthly body.
Marsha Fort Smith
Probe me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts.
Psalms 139:23 NAB
Kelly Gorbold, Longmont Co “The Lord your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul and live” NIV Deuteronomy 30:6
Sheryl, PA
Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful.
Heb. 10:23 NIV
Proverbs 6:19
19 a false witness who breathes lies
and sends out discord between brothers.
Carol
Albuquerque Nm
Psalm 16:5-6 NIV
5-Lord you alone are my portion and my cup you make my lot secure
6- The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places surely I have a delightful inheritance
Anita; Purcellville, VA
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Ephesians 2:8-10 NIV84
Susan Pittsburgh Pa
1 Corinthian 4:20
For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power
(NIV)
Michelle K., Warner Robins, GA
“For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.” 1 Corinthians 4:20
Caty of Stockbridge, GA – For the kingdom of God consists of and is based on not talk but power (moral power and excellence of soul). I Corinthians 4:20 AMP
Christy from Holland, MI
The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe.
Proverbs 18:10, NIV
Courtney, Chicora. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power. 1 Corinthians 4:20 NIV
“But you are a shield around me,
O Lord;
You bestow glory on me
and lift up my head.”
Psalm 3:3 NIV
Linda, Fort Collins, CO
Amy, Houston:
And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself restore, confirm, strengthen and establish you. (I Peter 5:10ESV)
Linda, Olympia WA
“Pursue peace with all men, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord. Heb. 12:14 nkjv
Chrissy, Aurora, IL
“She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come.”
Proverbs 31:25 (NIV)
Joretta Gorman, Waxahachie, TX
“Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful.” Heb. 10:23 RSV
Morag, Bishop, CA
“For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power” 1 Corinthians 4:20 (NIV)
Terri, Papua New Guinea. “‘Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.'” Matthew 6:10, NIV.
Christina Fort Worth
I am the Lord, the God of all the peoples of the world. Is anything too hard for me?
Jeremiah 32:27 NLT
Holli from Corona, Ca.
For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities- his eternal power and divine nature-have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made so that men are without excuse. Romans 1: 20 NIV 84
Wendy, Mechanicville, VA
God makes His people strong. God gives His people peace.
Psaml 29:11
“You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you.” Isaiah 26:3 (NLT)
Chester, VA
Julia, Whidbey Island, WA:” For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power. ” 1 Corinthians 4:20 NIV
Amber
Perth, Western Australia
For the Lord God helps Me; therefore have I not been ashamed or confounded. Therefore have I set My face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame. Isaiah 50:7 (AMP)
Rosa, Sulphur Springs, TX
“Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips acknowledging His name.” Hebrews 13:15 NET
Linda R. Springfield, MO
Don’t talk so much. You keep putting your foot in your mouth. Be sensible and turn off the flow!
Proverbs 10:19 Living Bible
Desiree Calgary, Alberta
For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.
1 Corinthians 4:20 NIV
For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power. 1 Corinthians 4:20 NIV
Jonna, Malibu, CA
For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power. 1 Corinthians 4:20 NIV
But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you. Matthew 6:33 HCSB
Susan, St. George, UT
“Rejoice in the Lord always, I will say it again: Rejoice!” Phillippians
4:4 HCSB
Judy, Virginia “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.” 1 Corinthians 4:20 NIV
Tracy – Andice, TX
“If possible,
as far as it depends on you,
be at peace with all men.”
Romans 12:18 NASB
Ann,SC
Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.
1 Peter 5:7 NIV
Kelley, La Verne. He is not afraid of bad news; his heart is firm, trusting in the Lord. ESV.
Heidi in Whitefish, MT
“Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified;
do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will
be with you wherever you go.”
Joshua 1:9 NIV