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
Diane Durham, NC
For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power. 1 Corinthians 4:20 NIV
Linda S
McCalla, Alabama
“Pray then like this:“Our Father in heaven,hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread,and forgive us our debts,as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”
Matthew 6:9-15 ESV
Take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.
Ephesians 6:16 NIV
Caryn from Grand Prairie, Tx
“For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.”
1 Corinthians 4:20 NIV 84
Krista from Midlothian, VA
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
Romans 8:37 NIV
Psalm 148:13 (NIV)
Let them praise the name of the Lord,
for his name alone is exalted;
his splendor is above the earth and the heavens.
Kathryn, West Palm Beach, “but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed.”James 1:14 NIV
Cathy Blount from Monroe GA
Proverbs 15:1 NIV A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.
Kim, Mansfield TX Psalm 51:10-12 NLT Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me. Do not banish me from your presence, and don’t take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you.
“The end of all things is at hand; therefore, be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace.” 1 Peter 4:9-11 ESV
Temple, TX
Psalm 32:8 NIV
“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go, I will counsel you and watch over you.”
Amber, Laporte, MN
“Is not my word like fire,” declares the Lord, “and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces? Jeremiah 23:29 NIV
Darcy, Houston,Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort. 2 Corinthians 1:3 nasb
I missed verse 13!If we endure, we will also reign with Him;
If we deny Him, He also will deny us. 2 Timothy 2:12 nasb
Judy of Marietta says: “So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come close to God, and God will come close to you.” James 4:7-8 NLT
Stacy – Hinckley, England
All things are done according to God’s plan and decision; and God chose us to be His own people.
Ephesians 1v11 GNT
Lea from Granger, IN: “be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” (Psalm 46:10, ESV)
Donna – from Bartlett, TN
“The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.”
—Zephaniah 3:17 NIV 1983
Shannon, Tyler Tx “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication
with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” Philippians 4:6 NASB
Martha from Corpus Christi
Be Joyful in hope,patient in affliction,faithful in prayer.
Romans 12:12
Mary Soisson, Barboursville, VA
Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. James 3:13, NIV
“Her husband can trust in her and she will greatly enrich his life. She brings him good and not harm, all the days of her life.” Proverbs 31:11,12 NLT
Jennifer, Kodak, TN
But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.
James 1:22 NASB
Maureen, UT:
It is better to live in a corner of the housetop than in a house shared with a quarrelsome wife.
Proverbs 21:9 ESV
Hannah | Oklahoma City, OK
Romans 8:37, NLT
No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.
Sharon In Florien: Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should. Ephesians 6:19 (NIV)
Kira, Ray, MI
Deuteronomy 6:9 ESV
You hall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
Terry, Carbondale, IL
“…so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.”
Colossians 1:10 (ESV)
Claire, Houston, Psalm 143:6, NIV, I spread out my hands to you; I thirst for you like a parched land.
“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.”
Ecclesiastes 3:1 (NIV)
Crystal, Gridley, IL
Andria from Northern Va:
Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
James 1:4 Niv
Barb, Philadelphia
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
(James 1:27, ESV)
Betsy Roberts – Antwerp, OH
Psalm 32:7 (NIV)
“You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with sons of deliverance. Selah.”
Cindy, Largo, Florida
And we who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into His image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. 2 Corinthians 3:18 NIV
The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will Not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.
He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.
Isaiah 40: 28-29 NIV
Roni – Demopolis, AL
“The Lord lives! Praise to my rock! May God, the Rock of my salvation, be exalted” NLT
2 Samuel 22:47
Taryn from Corinth, TX
“The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.”
Zephaniah 3:17 (NIV)
Put on the full armor of God that you may be able to stand firm against the tactics of the devil. Eph 6:11
Melissa Irwin; Franklin, TN
Psalm 139:14 (NASB)
“I will give thanks to you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well.”
“Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee: because he trusteth in Thee. Trust ye in the Lord forever: for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength.”
Isaiah 26:3-4 KJV
Ouida in Trenton,TX
height or depth, or any other created thing will have the power to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus ,our Lord. Romans 8:39 (HCB)
Claudia, Raeford, NC Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” (Hebrews 13:5 NIV)
Christy, Summit, MS; “The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and horn of my salvation, my stronghold.” Psalm 18:2 NIV
I have stored your Woed in my heart that I might not sin against you. Ps. 119:11, ESV
Seek The Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually. NIV. Pas. 105:4
Beth C, Huntsville, AL
From the mouths of children and infants you have ordained praise because of your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger. Psalm 8:2 (NIV)
Kim, Colonial Heights, VA
“Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust Him, and He will help you.”
Psalm 37:5, NLT
Chelsia Waverly, MN
“Fathers, do not embitter your children, or they will become discouraged.” Colossians 3:21 NIV
Dori Cook
Spring Hill, TN
“But I do not consider my life worth anything to myself, so that I may finish my task and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the good news of God’s grace.” Acts 20:24 NET
“Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Luke 12:32 ESV
Carrie, Burnsville, MN (for both July 1 & 15)
Jeremiah 29:11-13 (NIV)
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.