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
Dwan
Kings Mountain, NC
For everyone who asks receives and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.
Matthew 7:8, ESV
Billie, Greenville, KY “To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.” John 10:3 ESVUK
Natalie- Austin
John 15:4
Remain in me and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
Hebrews 4:16
Let us then with confidence
draw near to the throne of grace,
That we may receive mercy
and find grace to help in time of need.
Cindy K, Rock Hill, SC
Those who look to Him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame. Psalm 34:5 (NIV 2011)
Heather H. from Pflugerville, TX
1 Timothy 6:10 (NIV)
For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many grief’s.
James 2:2
Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in. 3 If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a good seat for you,” but say to the poor man, “You stand there” or “Sit on the floor by my feet,” 4 have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? – NIV
Karen, Christy, Cheryl A Cord of three Strands
Jay, OK
For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power. 1 Cor. 4:20 NIV
Psalm 27:13
I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.
Lisa
Cary, NC
For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.
2 Timothy 1:7 NLT
Lonnie G. Omaha, NE,
Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days. (Ephesians 5:16 NLT)
Ana from Tampa, FL
Isaiah 35:5-7 (NIV)
Then will the eyes of the blind be opened
and the ears of the deaf unstopped.
Then will the lame leap like a dear,
and the mute tongue shout for joy.
Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the dessert.
The burning sand will become a pool,
the thirsty ground bubbling springs.
In the haunts where jackals once lay,
grass and reeds and papyrus will grow.
I have rejoiced in the way of Thy testimonies as much as in all riches. Psalm 119:14 KJV
Adrienne, Valdosta, GA
“For the Kingdom of God is not just a lot of talk; it is living by God’s power.”
1 Cor 4:20 NLT
Ryan Sussex, WI
But as for you, be strong and do not give up, for your work will be rewarded.” (2 Chronicles 15:7 NIV)
Jeanne San Antonio, TX
Leviticus 19:18(NIV)
18 “‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.
And he said to me, “My grace is suffienent for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.
2 Corinthians 12:9 NIV
Hebrews 10:24 (NIV)
And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.
Megan
Virginia
“So now, O Lord our God, save us, please, from his hand that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, O Lord, are God alone.” 2 Kings 19:19 (ESV)
Lindsay from Sugar Land, Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value. She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life. (Proverbs 31:11, 12 NIV)
Kim, Cincinnati
For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power. 1Cor. 4:20 NIV
Psalm 103:2-5 NIV
2 Praise the Lord, my soul,
and forget not all his benefits—
3 who forgives all your sins
and heals all your diseases,
4 who redeems your life from the pit
and crowns you with love and compassion,
5 who satisfies your desires with good things
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
Lori, Owasso, OK
Proverbs 31:19-20 NLT
“Her hands are busy spinning thread,
her fingers twisting fiber. She extends a helping hand to the poor
and opens her arms to the needy.”
Lyndsey, NC
2 Corinthians 8:2 (ESV)
“In a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part.”
For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.
1Cor. 1:25 NIV
And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries for tomorrow – not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. Romans 8:38 NLT
O God, You are my God; I shall seek You earnestly; My soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You, In a dry and weary land where there is no water. (Psalms 63:1 NASB)
Amy from fairport Ny
May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm 19:14 NIV)
Jeannie, Nashville, Tn.
“And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever-” John 14:16.
Nikki L. Littleton, CO
” The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.” Jeremiah 17:9-10 ESV
Kim, Yorktown,VA
A gossip betrays a confidence; so avoid a man who talks too much. Proverbs 20:19 NIV
Therefore my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
1 Corinthians 15:58
Brittany, Norfolk, NE
Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope.
1 Thessalonians 4:13 NIV
Joanne, Callahan
For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power. 1 Corinthians 4:20 (NIV)
“Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” –James 4:7, NIV
Maddie from Flagstaff, AZ
Abbie, Omaha, NE
“For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power” 1 Cor. 4:20 (ESV)
Ramona Gellick,
Medina, Ohio
Proverbs 31:25 (NLT)
She is clothed with strength and dignity,and she laughs without fear of the future.
For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.
I Corinthians 4:20 NIV
Angel Bowman
Murfreesboro, TN
“I will give thanks to you as I learn your regulations, which are based on your righteousness.” Psalm 119:7 GW
Melanie Grace of Greenbrier, Tn
“Arise! Shine! For your light arrives!
The splendor of the Lord shines on you!
Isaiah 60:1 (NET)
Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice,O righeous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart! Ps 32:11
Sue, Wellington.
For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power. 1 Corinthians 4:20. NIV
“He is like a tree planted by streams of water which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.”
Psalms1:3 NIV
Liz from Hilliard, OH:
“Give heed to the voice of my cry,
My King and my God,
For to You I will pray.
3 My voice You shall hear in the morning, O Lord;
In the morning I will direct it to You,
And I will look up.”
Psalm 5:2-3 (NKJV)
Melanie, San Antonio, Tx
“When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.”
Psalm 56:3 (ESV)
Holly, Glendale, AZ:
“Make thankfulness your sacrifice to God, and keep the vows you made to the Most High. Then call on me when you are in trouble, and I will rescue you, and you will give me glory.”
Psalm 50:14-15 NLT
Karin
Clinton, NJ
I have told you all this so that you
may have peace in me. Here on earth
you will have many trials and sorrows.
But take heart, because I have overcome the world.
John 16:33 NLT
The Lord gives strength to his people, the Lord blesses his people with peace.
Ps. 29:11 NIV
Caitlin Long
Demopolis, Al
He alone is my rock and my salvation. He is my fortress. I will never be shaken. Psalm 62:2 KJV
Lisa, Andalusia Alabama
You are my refuge and my shield;
your word is my source of hope
Psalm 119:114 NLT