Things I Learned this Weekend

I was busy ministry-wise all weekend. Friday night in Bolingbrook, Saturday Morning Men’s fellowship, Sunday Morning Church, Sunday Night Church, Movie on Channel 7 re 9-11.

Sometimes it’s just good to reflect, did I learn anything? I did:

People need to be let out of Spiritual Jail. Sometimes we just need to have someone speak words of release over us. God created the universe with a word. We can cause things to happen with a word of faith spoken over a person in need of a miracle.

People’s troubles are like Hurricanes. Every hurricane starts with a tropical depression. A tropical depression is only neutralized by meeting up with a high-pressure system. Our lives storms start with depression and are only corrected by meeting up with the most high. If you stop the depression, you stop many storms.

Most people let circumstance dictate truth to them. Even when the circumstances they face aren’t the truth of God they are controlled by circumstance.

Most people don’t understand what God’s plan is for the life they are leading. If they did they would walk with more confidence. People are immortal until they have reached the destination they were created for. It’s people who live aimlessly that are subject to being derailed by Satan.

Women are a mystery to Men. That’s good and that’s bad. There are answers. The Song of Solomon reveals the heart of a woman and a man. Get that and you will get it. God wants us to live in fullness in our marriage more than we do. And he has a wonderful way to do it. Dr. Phil doesn’t have a clue to much of this. Most “Christian” books on marriage are pop psychology set to the beat of a few Bible verses and “What a Friend we have in Jesus”. Ignore them at all costs.

When tough times come like 9-11 or Katrina people flee. They become refugees. When tough times come in life, many Christians become refugees from faith. They need to be nurtured and nourished by words of Faith. The must be helped back from being faith evacuees.

Seducing spirits are all around. They are harmless until we pay attention to them. Kent Hunter said this Sunday Morning. He is a good guy and a great grower of Black Walnut. I have seen lots of supposed Black Walnut plantations and never heard of anyone who had it together like Kent did. I look forward to continuing conversations with him.

If we depart from having faith, there is only one place we will live, the state of fear. There is no middle ground in the realm of believing God. A little disbelief can stop a train of faith.

God wants to show off thru us. Let’s let him. We have to find out what that looks like.

I heard the best altar call presentation I ever heard: “If you know you are in spiritual trouble and want to come back to Jesus come up here”. Powerful.

People who are unsure of themselves spiritually, talk too much. I call it the habbada habbbada habbada of spiritual leadership. It can be embarrassing. Once a person gets full of God and overflows in it they use far fewer but far more powerful words. Wordiness is a sign of spiritual immaturity.

Some people, well meaning people, even people who pray in tongues, pray in fear. It’s sometimes called, worrying our prayers. You’ve done it. “Oh, Lord, You see the big trouble we are in, this is a mess, etc”. Whatever is not of faith is sin. So, I don’t know where that stands. I do know this, sometimes praying the “Lord’s Will” is praying in fear. I don’t see anywhere in the word where Jesus rebuked the disciples by saying, “you have too much faith”. His only rebukes in this area were acting in fear, doubt and unbelief.

If someone is going to pray for me, I want them to pray in faith believing. Jesus said that unless you do this, “Let him not expect much from God”. I want to expect a lot from God. So, if it’s OK with you, I’ll pray in faith believing.

I saw the 9-11 film on ABC. This must be a two-headed attack to win this war. First we must crush those who want to kill us. That is war.

Then we must persuade the ones who don’t know of the truth who Jesus really is. This is the single greatest Challenge of the Global Church today. Unfortunately as anemic as the Church in America is I have no hope we can do much other then get out of the way. In fact, most of our missions programs are a waste of time. Only men and women of God from those Countries who can reach them and the converts in their midst can do this. If we support them there may be hope.

And, that’s what I learned this weekend.