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
But from there you will seek the Lord your God and you will find Him if you search after Him with all your heart and all your soul.
Deut. 4:29 ESV
Lisa Walden from Grand Prairie Tx
2 Timothy 1:7 NIV
For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.
Kara C, Aurora Il
1 Peter 5:7 (NLT) “Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.”
Lori, Friendswood, TX
“The fear of the LORD is pure, enduring forever. The ordinances of the LORD are sure and altogether righteous.”
Psalm 19: 9 (NIV)
Shawna Kent, WA
“So you, my daughter, be strong (strengthened inwardly)in the grace (spiritual blessing) that is (to be found only) in Christ Jesus.”
2 Timothy 2:1 (AMP)
Beth, I soooo loved your message! Direct Hit! 🙂
I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the strength of your faith.
Colossians 2:5
Lynda from Ocala, FL: Psalm 103:18 – with those who keep His covenant and remember to obey His precepts. NIV
I know that we are not supposed to use today for prayer requests but today is when I have one. A dear 84 year old family member is having a life saving chemo treatment. Could you pray for success and God’s peace for her and her family. Thank you. Love you Siestas. Your sister in Christ..
Allison from Scottsdale, AZ.
Romans 15:13 New English Translation (NET)
13 Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you believe in him, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Wendy, Harrodsburg, Kentucky
When the wind has passed over it, it is no more; and its place acknowledges it no longer. But the lovingkindness of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him.
Psalm 103:8-18
NASB
Laurie, Gibsonville, NC
“Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall”
Proverbs 16:18 NIV
Peg, Naperville, IL
“When we were overwhelmed by sins, you forgave our transgressions.” Psalm 65:3 (NIV)
Lu, Garner NC, not my original selection…but now a must:
For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power. 1 Corinthians 4:20 NIV
Kelly from Denver…
God is our refuge and strength. A very present help in trouble.
Psalm 46:1
NASB
Fareen
Las Vegas, NV
“What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself and enemy of God.”
James 4:1-4 NASB
Peggy, Corpus Christi, TX
Then He replied, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” Exodus 33:14 (HCSB)
For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. (2 Corinthians 10:3, 4 NIV)
Jeremiah 32:17 NIV1984
So there is hope for your future declares the LORD. Your children will return to their own land.
Carrie Guion, Wentzville, Mo.
But you are always the same; you will live forever. Psalm 102:27 NLT
This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118:24, NLT
Courtney, Houma, LA
3 verses total:
2 Timothy 1:7
New International Version (NIV)
7 For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.
Philippians 4:13
New International Version (NIV)
13 I can do all this through him who gives me strength.
Revelation 21:4
New International Version (NIV)
4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’[a] or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
Misti, Brookshire, TX
Romans 15:13 NIV
“May the God of hope full you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
Coral, Jacksonville, Florida
For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.
1 Corinthians 4:20 NIV
The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. (Romans 8:6 NIV)
Hannah, Perry, MI
“And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.”
2 Corinthians 9:8, NIV
Colleen Duebber. Cincinnati, Ohio
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow his precepts have good understanding. To him belongs eternal praise.
Psalm 111:10 NIV
I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in His word I do hope. Psalm 130:5 NKJV
Dayna, Bedford, VA
using another Siesta’s verse that blessed me….
“So you, my son, be strong (strengthened inwardly)in the grace (spiritual blessing) that is (to be found only) in Christ Jesus.”
2 Timothy 2:1 (AMP)
Barbara, Lewisburg, KY
“For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.” 1 Corinthians 4:20 NIV
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
1 Thessalonians 5:28 [NIV]
Phillipians 4:11-13 NIV
I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what is is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through Him who gives me strength.
Susan, Tallahassee, Fla.,
In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory. Ephesians 1:13-14, NIV
Melissa from Flemington, NJ. Matthew 6:33, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” KJV.
Karla Dumal
Gulfport, MS
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. Proverbs 1:7 KJV
Durant, OK
For this very reason, make every effort to
add to your faith, goodness;
and to your goodness, knowledge;
and to your knowledge, self-control;
and to your self control, perseverance;
and to your perseverance, godliness,
and to your godliness, brotherly kindness;
and to your brotherly kindness, love.
2 Peter 1:5NIV
Jolie – Cottage Grove, MN
When You said, “Seek My face,” my heart said to You, “Your face, LORD, I will seek.”
Psalm 27:8 NKJV
Cindy
Kalamazoo, Michigan
“Love must be sincere, hate what is evil, cling to what is good”
Romans 12:9
NIV
Lezli. Oklahoma City, OK
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power 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. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:9, 10 NIV)
Marilyn Wirsz, Odessa, FL
I know the Lord is always with me. I will not be shaken, for he is right beside me.
Psalm 16:8. NLT
Michelle, Fort Worth
Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 1 Peter 4:5-8 ESV
Joy from Lubbock, TX
“…equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.” Hebrews 13:21 NIV
Punky Tolson, Dallas, TX
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,…
Ephesians 6:19 (NIV)
Sing the glory of his name make his praise glorious
Psalm 66:2
Karen H., Stephenville, TX
Romans 12:11 (NASB)
not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord;
Rachel H., Alabama
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, (Luke 4:18 NIV)
1 Corinthians 4:20 ESV
“For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power.”
Thank you so much, Beth!
2 Timothy 3:16-17 (NIV)
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
Livia
Wick,Scotland
2 Chronicles 16:9a
New International Version (NIV)
“For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.”
And, in Hungarian
2 Krónikák 16:9a
Hungarian New Translation (NT-HU)
“Mert az Úr szemei áttekintik az egész földet, és ő megmutatja erejét azoknak, akik tiszta szívvel az övéi.”
Dianne Jones, Fairfield, CA – For the Kingdom of God is not just a lot of talk; it is living by God’s power. – 1 Corinthians 4:20 (NLT)
shout with joy to God,all the earth psalm 66:1