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
Erin, Bella Vista, Ar
Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. James 1:21 NIV
Hope, Casper, Wyoming
Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
Lamentations 3:22-23 NIV
The wise in heart are called discerning,
and gracious words promote instruction.
Proverbs 16:21 (NIV)
Jane from Calgary, Alberta
“No thieves, greedy people, drunkards, verbally abusive people, or swindlers will inherit God’s kingdom.” 1 Cor. 6:10 (HCSB)
Kathy from Chandler, OK
“Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?” (Matthew 14:31 NIV)
From Stafford, Texas
John 7:38 “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.'”
emi, white house: “Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us. Selah” Psalm 62:8 ESV
From Stafford, Texas
John 7:38 “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.’” NAS
Laura from Prairieville, LA:
When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land He has given you. Deuteronomy 8:10 NIV
Kelley from Houston.
“For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.”
1 Corinthians 4:20 (NIV)
Michelle Weihing – Frisco, Tx – For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power. 1 Corinthians 4:20 NIV
Picked another but this one hit me to claim and cling to. ; )
Teresa from Apex, NC
Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6 ESV
Shelley from San Angelo
Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding
Proverbs 3:5
NIV
Rachel, Surprise, AZ
“Test everything. Hold on to the good.” ~1 Thessalonians 5:21 (NIV)
Liz, Costa Mesa, CA
“You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God,and they will reign on the earth.” Rev 5:10
Traci ~ Vadnais Heights, MN
Lamentations 2:19
“Pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord.
Lift up your hands toward Him for the lives of your children.”
Tracy, Tangent, OR
Col 3:17 NKJV And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Becca, Camp Pendleton, CA.
Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.
~ Galatians 6:2 NIV
Christine, Chandler, AZ
“By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel.”
Hebrews 11:28 NIV
Desta, Trinchera ~ “… So you too, when you do all the things which are commanded you, say, ‘We are unworthy slaves; we have done only that which we ought to have done.'” Luke 17:10 NASB
Starr, Panama City, FL
The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.” (Exodus 14:14 NIV)
Sharron Kay Fires, Possum Kingdom Lake, near Graford, TX
“I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully mad; Your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”
Psalm 139:14 NIV
Don’t grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door! James 5:9 (NIV)
“The eyes of the Lord search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him.”
II Chronicles 16:9
NLT
” They speak of you with evil intent; your adversaries misuse your name.” Psalm 139:20 NIV
Carol, Belleville, ON:
I asked the Lord for help, and He answered me. He saved me from all that I feared. Ps 34:4 NCV
Alicia,Mesa,AZ
For those who are led by the spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not made you slave, so that you live in fear again; rather Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship and by Him we cry, Abba, Father. Romans 8:14-15 NIV
Cindy, Nashville, TN, “You should clothe yourselves instead with the beauty that comes from within, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so precious to God.” I Peter 3:4 New Living Translation
Sally, Bellaire, Tx. James 1:12, NIV. Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.
Connie, Durham NC “Know this my beloved brothers let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.” James 1:19 ESV
Brenda from Southern Maryland
Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don’t try to figure out everything on your own. Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; he’s the one who will keep you on track. Proverbs 3:5-6 The Message
Michelle, Watauga TX
Isaiah 60:8 VOICE
“Who are these sailing to our ports like clouds through the sky, like doves winging their way home to their window sills?
Andrea Woodstock GA
“But He knows the way that I take; when He has tested me, I will come forth as gold.”
Job 23:10 NIV
Brynn in Rogers, AR
And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.
Colossians 2:13-14
Lori Behrens
Granbury, Tx
Isaiah 61:1 (NASB)
The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me,
Because the LORD has anointed me To bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to captives
And freedom to prisoners;
Dana Nance
Blue Ridge, TX
For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.
1 Cor 4:20 NIV
Nancy, Lee’s Summit, MO
The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.
Hebrews 1:3 NIV
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
1 Corinthians 13:4-5 (NIV)
Brenda Hayden, Auburn, WA.
Acts 4:12 ESV
And there is salvation in no on else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.
Debbie, Corpus Christi:
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.”
John 3:16 NAB
MaryClare in Frisco, Texas
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him and he will make your paths straight.
Proverbs 3:5-6 NIV
Tolu, Boston MA
Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I entrust my life.
Psalm 143:8 NIV
Elizabeth,Gilbert,AZ
For I know the plans I have for you”, declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11 NIV
Jeri, Draper UT
The Lord your God is with you,
the Mighty Warrior who saves.
He will take great delight in you;
in his love he will no longer rebuke you,
but will rejoice over you with singing.
Zephaniah 3:17 NIV
Dorinda, O’Fallon, MO. Let the king be enthralled by your beauty; honor him, for he is your lord. (Psalm 45:11 NIV)
Allison, Cypress
“If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.” Genesis 4:7 NIV
Joanna Duck, Norman, Oklahoma
10 I have a serious concern to bring up with you, my friends, using the authority of Jesus, our Master. I’ll put it as urgently as I can: You must get along with each other. You must learn to be considerate of one another, cultivating a life in common. I Corinthians 1:10 MSG
Be strong in the lord and in his mighty power.
Eph. 6:10. Nothing is to big for God.
Jenni, Murray, KY
We all, with unveiled faces, are looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory; this is from the Lord who is the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:18 HCSB)
Julia, Flower Mound, TX
For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead I Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 1 Thess 4:16-17 NIV