Wrestling with God about Serious Things

This morning I received an email from a friend regarding the life-and-death situation of one of her friends, who is battling a terminal disease. I felt impressed to share these thoughts with her, and also with you. Blessings on you as you read:

There are several dimensions to answering your question about G’s situation. First, all the contemplatives through history whose writings have survived talk about Jesus Himself being the great reward, the most desirable one, and that the ultimate outcome of seeking Him is to be with Him and to know Him. They emphasize the need to relinquish all other desires to the one desire of the presence of Jesus, leaving all the options in His hand, and determining to love Him and worship Him no matter what the short-term outcome looks like. When Mary (my wife) was nearing the end of her journey in 2004, a friend of our daughter sent her a note quoting from Psalm 45, that the King was inviting her to leave her father’s home, because He desired her presence. It gave her the faith to release herself, her children, and me into the Lord’s hands, knowing that fullness for her was in His literal presence after physical death.

Second, the closer we come to Him and release our desires to Him, the more clearly we understand His desires and plans, and can come into agreement with them. This was Jesus’ own process in the Garden, where He presented His desires to the Father, but then relinquished them to the Father’s greater plan. We are certainly free to ask for healing, and even declare it when we hear His Word to us, but that reality is also held in tension with the fact that the fullness of His promises of healing will come after He returns. We ask, we believe, we trust in His outcome.

Third (and this is very powerful), while we wait and suffer, we can draw near in trust and worship. This is the embrace of the “north wind” of SOS 4:16, letting the fragrance of worship flow out under the pressure of difficult circumstances. It is the highest form of worship and trust, again modeled by Jesus on the cross when He commended His Spirit into the hands of the Father. Paul tells us (Colossians 1:24) that when we come to this place of trust and understanding, God actually counts it as participation in the sufferings of Jesus, and uses it to influence and transform the lives of people around us, even those we might not know. Amazing!

Finally, Marie and I are reading a book by Robert Henderson titled “Operating in the Courts of Heaven.” It’s very powerful and insightful in the matter of how we pray, and how we can eliminate spiritual factors that hinder prayers. Often these spiritual factors give the enemy the right to accuse and hinder prayer, and so the Holy Spirit desires to help us eliminate the enemy’s influence through forgiveness, repentance, and trust. I would recommend it to you.

I hope these things are helpful to someone who may read this posting. Pass it on!

Gary Wiens

When I Am Weak, Then I Am Strong

This past week I had the privilege of meeting a new group of folks in Gig Harbor, Washington, where I live. It was a group of pastors and leaders in the faith community here, and I must say, it was a delightful time of sharing humor, deep feelings (I was surprised at this!), and camaraderie in the work of pastoral care ministry in our town.

One of the topics that came up, spurred by a sentence-starter presented by the leader of the meeting this week, was the issue of personal weakness, and how we as leaders face weakness in ourselves and others as we serve. Since it was my first time in attendance, I was interested to see how this group of six men and three women would interact around this matter.

I was surprised and impacted at the depth of transparency and trust that was demonstrated by the group. No quick, superficial answers were given; rather, there was honest communication as we spoke about facing our own places of weakness in the course of professional and personal living.

As the conversation went on, I found myself reflecting on the fact that only weak people have testimonies of God's power and deliverance. God values weakness in His people, for those who know they are weak turn to Him for strength and help in their situations. Strong people don't need to pray, don't need faith, don't need help - strong people strive to prove themselves to themselves, to one another, and to God. Unfortunately, this "strength" is often nothing more than thinly disguised pride, and that stance receives no help from God at all.

Weakness (Jesus calls it 'poverty of spirit' in Matthew 5) is precious to God, because when we are weak, we turn to Him as the resource, the One who has the solution for our situation. And here's where it gets interesting: God loves to put us in situations where our weakness is brought to the surface, so that we have the opportunity to trust, so that He can show Himself strong on our behalf.

I saw a statement on another blog I read that says this: "If your vision doesn't scare you, it's not big enough!" I think that's true, because God is not looking for what we can do for Him; He's looking for people who will surrender in weakness so that He can do what He wants to do in partnership with them.

What does God want to do in and through you today, this week, this year? Are you afraid you can't pull it off? If your answer is 'yes,' that's good! Now you are postured to receive a miracle!

2 Chronicles 16:9 says this: "The eyes of God look to and fro through the whole earth to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose hearts are loyal to Him." In other words, He's looking for those who know they are weak, but who trust Him anyway. Then He gets involved, and we end up with victory and a powerful testimony.

My prayer for myself and for you this week is this: May the Holy Spirit lead us into scary things, that we might better know how much we need Him, and that we might better know how eager He is to show up for us.

Gary Wiens

A Biblical Plumb Line For National Leadership

As a nation, we in America are standing on the precipice of what may be one of the most important national elections in our history. Like many of you who read this, I have been less than thrilled by the political stances of the two main candidates, let alone the obvious character flaws that are presented in the media, regardless of how accurately those representations reflect the truth. The option seems to be to vote for the candidate who will have the least negative impact on the American culture, depending on how one sees the issues of the day.

As I muse on these things, I am drawn to the Biblical standard for leadership that is presented in the ancient prophecy of Isaiah, where in Chapter 11, verses 1-9, he articulates the character of the ultimate Leader, and the impact that his leadership will have on the lives of the people and culture under his leadership. As I share these things, I’m well aware that the ultimate fulfillment of this prophecy will come when Jesus Christ returns and establishes His Kingdom on the earth. However, I believe we can still call our national leaders to this standard, as this is government as God designed it and intends for it to be expressed.

Isaiah 11:2 tells us that this Leader will be filled with the full dynamic presence of the Holy Spirit – wisdom and understanding, counsel and might, knowledge and the fear of the Lord. We may think that it is unrealistic to call our political leaders to such a reality, but we as citizens of God’s Kingdom must never back off the standards that God sets. Only a man filled with the Spirit of God will ever be able to govern in such a way that peace and blessing will come to all the citizens.

Verses 3-4 give us insight as to the standards of judgment exercised by this anointed Leader. His policies and judgments are aligned with righteousness and equity, especially for the poor and the weak! He is not concerned with political expediency or political correctness. In other words, he is focused on bringing all things into alignment with God’s design, understanding that being conformed to God’s design is the only way to real freedom, fulfillment and joy.

These verses also let us know that the speech of this Leader is filled with power for the establishment of goodness and right – the wicked and their ways will be removed from power and ultimately destroyed!

While destruction of the wicked seems extreme to our contemporary minds, we are assured in the following verse that this Leader will be clothed in righteousness and faithfulness, so his power will be compassionate and gracious even when dealing with wickedness in the culture.

In verses 6-9, Isaiah tells us that the fruit of this Leader’s influence will be peace and quietness at every level of society, because the whole earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord. The fruit of this kind of leadership will be peace among those who have formerly been enemies. Certainly this is a desperate hope for a nation such as ours in this time!

Again, I realize that this will be fulfilled completely only when Jesus returns, but this passage serves as a standard, a measuring stick by which we as believers can assess the presence and influence of God upon our present leaders as we wait for the Kingdom that is surely coming.

The Changing Nature and Expression of Christianity

During the summer of 1982, the Holy Spirit encountered Mike Bickle in a hotel room in Cairo, Egypt. Mike, who is now the Director of the International House of Prayer in Kansas City, heard the thunderous voice of the Lord declare these words: “Young man, I am going to change the nature and expression of Christianity in the entire earth in one generation.” The words resonated through Mike’s entire being, driving him physically to the floor in the fear of the Lord. That encounter has been a seminal moment in Mike’s life, a plumb-line that has helped form his priorities and direction since that time.

The implications of that message cause a trembling in our hearts even today, as I believe that we are seeing the beginnings of that transformation. Even as we witness the soaring trajectories of various successful institutional ministries, and appreciate the impact they are having in the lives of many, there is nevertheless a growing longing in the hearts of many of God’s people to see something different, something that seems more central to the heart of the Father.

When I talk with various individuals in the Body of Christ and mention this undercurrent of longing, the response that comes most often is this: “We just want to worship God. We want to be in the Presence of the Lord in such a way that nothing else matters.” This longing, this stirring in the hearts of believers across the nation feels like the beginnings of an earthquake, a deep rumbling, a yearning in the Spirit for God’s Presence to be manifest among His people.

I believe that the Spirit of God is behind all of this. I believe that He is stirring it up, more and more deeply, in more and more places than ever before. As God’s people, we want to be with Him, to touch Him and feel His touch upon our hearts. We want to know that His Presence, so powerfully spoken of in His Word, is with us as well, in the same unhindered ways that we read about in the testimonies of others.

Why not here? Why not now? Could we really give ourselves to this, and just bypass all the trappings of business-as-usual Church? Is it possible that we really could forgive and forget the past, the difficulties we’ve all had with others (and have caused for others!) in the institution, and simply come together to worship and delight in the Presence of God?

I think – and maybe even believe – that God is doing just that. Perhaps the longing that is arising is actually His deep center calling out to the deep places in our hearts, wooing and drawing, inviting us home to His own heart. If it is indeed Jesus out there on the water, tell me to come! I’ll leave whatever it is I’m doing and jump in with Him!

The question some will ask is: what good will this be? What will come of it? And the answer – I believe – is: Everything!