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
Kari, Charlottesville, VA
“Behold, God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid; For the Lord God is my strength and song, And He has become my salvation.” (Isaiah 12:2 NASB)
Jenny, Des Moines, IA
2 Corin 4:7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. NIV
Marsha
Jefferson, ME
“You are my hiding place; You will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance.”
Psalm 32:7 (NIV)
(Sorry to be late posting. I don’t have internet at home and my phone wouldn’t co-operate.)
Psalms 103: 1-5 NIV “Praise the Lord, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise His holy name. Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits—who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases; who redeems your life from the pit and crowns your life with love and compassion; who satisfires your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagles.”
Mia Callahan from Burlington, VT
“Therefore know that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments.” Deut. 7:9 NKJV
(Sorry this is late…traveling! God bless you all!!)
Laura K, Spearfish, SD
“Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children’s children.” – Deuteronomy 4: 9 ESV
Jodi, Perth, Western Australia
James 1:12 NIRV
Blessed is the man who keeps on going when times are hard. After he has come through them, he will receive a crown. The crown is life itself. God has promised it to those who love him.
Becki, Battle Creek, MI
For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their own husbands, as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. And you are her children, if you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening.
1Peter 3:5-6 (ESV)
Susan Bymaster, Ames, Oklahoma
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Romans 12:2a
(Sorry to be late. Been on vacation!)
DeAnne W. Bothell, WA For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power. 1 Corinthians 4:20 NIV
Pauline, Eau Claire Wi “I will praise You for I am fearfully and
Wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works and that my soul
Knows very well” psalm 139:14 NKJV
“Such love has no fear, becaus perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love. We love each other because he loved us first.”
~1 John 4:18&19 NLT
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)
Kimber, Panama City, FL
Trinna, Covington, “But the Lord God helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame.” Isaiah 50:7 ESV
from Kemptville, On
“May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.” Psalm 19:14 (NIV)
Dena K. from Columbus,OH:
For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power. (1 Corinthians 4:20 NIV)
Also adding:
And Joshua said to the people, “Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.” (Joshua 3:5 NKJV)
Phyllis, Irvine, CA
“Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” Colossians 3:1-2 (NIV)
“And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.” Ezekiel 36:26 ESV…Martha, Van Buren, Arkansas
Not participating in the Siesta Scripture memory this time around but wanted to say: “Amen and Amen” to this post!
Blessings,
Lynne
Jenni, San Diego, continuing Psalm 37. Verses 18 and 19: “The LORD knows the days of the upright, and their inheritance shall be forever. They shall not be ashamed in the evil time, and in the days of famine they shall be satisfied.”
Fran, Stedman, NC
“For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk, but of power.” I Cor. 4:20 NIV
Kristen, Virginia: I took my troubles to the Lord; I cried out to Him & He answered my prayer. Ps. 120:1 NLT
“No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.” 1 Corinthians 10:13 NIV
Dusti, Van Buren, Arkansas
Sherilyn R, Warsaw, IN
John 3:30 “He must increase and I must decrease” ESV
Note–I choose this verse because it is the theme verse of the Momentum youth conference that I am currently serving at on the campus of Indiana Wesleyan University–we sure would appreciate your prayers for spiritual growth and revival in lives of teens and adults as we emphasize the theme “I Am Second”!
from Muscle Shoals (but currently on the beach in Gulf Shores, where I’ve been unable to get
internet for several days, which is good but kinda bad,too).
“Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.” (Colossians 3:16 NIV)
Candi McDonald, Ft Bragg, NC
‘and provide for those who grieve in Zion–to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise
instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord
for the display of his splendor.’ Isaiah 61:3, NIV
Michele ~ Kenosha, WI
But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. And I was delivered from the lion’s mouth.
2 Timothy 4:17 NIV
Heidi Tracht, Idaho
For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.
1 Corinthians 4:20 NIV
Jennifer, Chattanooga. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power. 1 Corinthians 4:20 NIV
Amy, Washington DC “Look straight ahead, and fix your eyes on what lies before you.” Proverbs 4:25 NLT
Jill from Winter Haven, FL
“But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful.” Colossians 3:14-15 NKJV
Vicki
Murfreesboro, TN
Psalm 34:15 (NKJV)
“The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their cry.”
Carla, Houston, Tx.
I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in His Word I put my hope. Ps. 130:5(NIV)
Amy- Fort Polk, LA
For the honor of Your name, O Lord, forgive my many, many sins. Psalm 25:11 NLT
Kim C from Franklinton, LA
Isaiah 49:16 ESV
Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me.
Was in RI this weekend powerful Ps 139:15-18 has been put on my heart especially “when I awake I am still with you” what a presence we have in our powerful GOD
Judy, Hoover, AL For the kingdom of god is not a matter of talk but power. 1 Corinthians 4:20 (NIV)
Aleta, Westfield IN, NIV John 17:26 “I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”
Tessie El Dorado Springs, MO.
Not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord Almighty.
Zechariah 4:6 NIV
Patti, San Rafael,Ca.
Ps. 54:4
“Behold, God is my helper:the Lord is the upholder of my life.”
ESV
Lisa, Simsboro, LA
“I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”
Psalms 139:14 NIV
Kelley, La Verne. He is not afraid of bad news; his heart is firm, trusting in The Lord. Psalm 112:7 ESV
Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.
Psalm 118:1 NIV
To You, O Lord, I lift up my soul. Psalm 25:1 NAS
Jeremiah 32:17
Oh, Lord God! You Yourself made the heavens and earth by Your great power and with Your outstretched arm. Nothing is too difficult for You! HCS
Jan, Louisville, KY
Isaiah 41:10 So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
Teri S. – Gadsden AL
“I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do, but what I hate, I do.
Romans 7:15 NIV
Esme Brown, Memphis, TN
You are my hiding place and my shield; I hope in Your word. (Psalms 119:114 NKJV)
Joelle, Abilene,TX
For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.
(1 Corinthians 4:20 NIV)
Beth, Robinson
“The Lord will fight for you, and you can stand still.” Exodus 14:14 NET