Let It Rock!

Enough Games, Enough Cliches, Let's Take Authority!

All the bad people in the world don’t have to “change” for the world to be a better place. This makes sense when we realize all the righteous people in the world don’t have to change for the world to be an evil place-it already is! Evil governs by powers and principalities set up in high places according to the Bible. It seems pretty clear then where the real battle is taking place-at the top! It is pretty evident however that the righteous ones are currently losing the fight. If we look at the world in terms of market share, evil has a monopoly. Sad as it may be, we’re just not choosing our battles wisely.

As disciples of Christ, it is our calling to be salt and light. Salt preserves, light illuminates. It’s Who Christ Is! When salt is applied to meat, preservation begins automatically. When the light switch is flipped on, darkness leaves immediately-no questions asked. My point is that we’re working too hard to convert lost souls, and equally as hard to fill churches. But, before you slap a label on me, consider this:

Jesus never tried to convert, but rather revert. He told us to repent, or change our thinking and perception because the kingdom is here! Kingdom, as used here means governance, authority, ruler-ship. Jesus wasn’t merely giving us salvation, He was giving us back the authority we lost when Adam and Eve fell from dominion. The biggest problem with “converting” lost souls is simply the angle; the perception it brings. On one hand, Jesus tells lost souls to refrain from being deceived and change their thinking to retake their rightful authority, but on the other hand we tell lost souls to stop sinning or else they will burn in hell. Well, there’s usually two responses to this message. Convert and become a Christian, whatever that means. And the second is the person who runs further away from God because he/she doesn't want to know a God who would “send them to hell.” But let’s go back to the first group of responders who decide to convert. Why is it the greater portion of these “converts” convert back to their previous state not long after they made a decision for Christ? Take a look at this excerpt:

In 1972, Campus Crusade for Christ had a huge evangelistic conference in Dallas, TX called Explo ‘72. Attendees were equipped and sent home with the vision of sharing the Gospel with every person in the United States of America by 1976. Though it did not happen, the campaign did “reach” millions with the Gospel.

Phase One of the project was to wear buttons and have billboards and newspaper advertisements that read: “I Found It!” (’it’ meaning eternal life). Phase Two involved trained volunteers making millions of evangelistic telephone calls. Those who prayed with the volunteers, were “visited by the volunteers, given follow-up literature, and encouraged to join a Bible study group in their neighborhood.”

By the end of 1976, 6.5 million people had been contacted, and 536,824 people had indicated they trusted Christ for salvation (60,000 of those joining the neighborhood Bible study group). It was estimated that 50 million people saw the television special that went along with the campaign! Amazing stats...seemed quite effective at “reaching” the United States with the Gospel.

“Though the campaign’s statistics seemed, good, the campaign drew criticism from experts on church growth. Win Arn noted that few of the converts actually joined local churches. For example, in Edmonton, Canada, 1,700 workers from 63 participating churches recorded 1,009 decisions for Christ. Only 250 of those people actually attended one Bible study, and not a single person became a church member as a result of the campaign. In Indianapolis 823 volunteers made 28,976 telephone calls. These calls produced 1,665 decisions for Christ. However, only 242 attended a Bible study, and only 55 became church members. Of these, 23 were transfers from another church. Therefore, the net gain in membership in area churches was 32.” (John Mark Terry, Evangelism: A Concise History, 189-190).

It seems to me that hell fire, the promise of eternal life, and even salvation isn’t the correct angle all by itself. Even more than that, it isn’t holistic enough to be a complete gospel. When Jesus preached the gospel/good news, it was always about the kingdom. The gospel wasn’t salvation, eternal life or hell fire, it was the kingdom-regaining our rightful position as children of God; Salvation is how we get into the kingdom, but the kingdom is The Message.

With that said, we need to go back to basics. The basics of the kingdom. Once we understand the kingdom, we will understand the angle that every human being on the face of the earth can relate to; the angle that gives them the perception they need to realize Christ in fullness and in truth. We all have circumstances we go through, we all have burdens we need lifted; it's the message of the kingdom ( Governing Circumstances: The Way of the Kingdom, Part 1, 2, 3, 4) that fills the need of every human being on the face of the earth, making it the one true common denominator for all of humanity.

It is the kingdom of God in us that will fight principalities, powers and strong holds in high places. Once we regain authority in these high places, the world will change, because it is from the high place that a world is governed.

Upgrade Your Building Code!

For those that have realized God, there are those questions that will come up at some point. What is my calling? What is my purpose? How do I please God? Well, Pastor William Ilnisky of Lighthouse Christian Center Intl. put it this way: “Pleasing God is different for everyone. God has impressed different things on our individual hearts and when we walk in alignment with these things, we are pleasing God.” In other words, lets say God called you to write for His glory, and He has given you an anointing to be a writer. But I see that you are writing and you are ministering to people, and God is blessing you so I decide to write as well when God really gave me an anointing to sing. It isn’t that I shouldn’t be a writer, it’s simply that I am writing for the wrong reasons and I would please God if I were to focus on what He has anointed me to do. So really, what Pastor Ilnisky was getting across to me was that Purpose is directly associated with Pleasing God.

The bottom line is that if I knew my purpose, I wouldn’t have to preoccupy my time with trying to look holy, or look like I’m pleasing God.

I will tell you though, a lot of times we confuse purpose with process. Do you know anyone that has a job but is always complaining that they are so much better than this job, or someone who doesn’t even have a job and cant wait to get a job? Many times people living for God find themselves saying, “God, I need you to take me higher, I want to do your will but I know it’s not here. I just know it.” It’s almost like we are looking for some kind of, ‘first class calling.’

The truth of the matter is, Purpose is a Process. If God is the center of your life, then where you are right now, is exactly where you need to be in order to advance according to God’s calendar. I know the winds are blowing; the storm is brewing, and it seems like more harm that good is taking place. But we have to be built on a firm foundation to withstand the storms of life. To stay put and pray, instead of retreating and revoking God's will for our lives. Like Esther Ilnisky said at a Wednesday night Bible study, "Christians need to upgrade their building code!"

Take Joseph, son of Jacob for example. He told his family about some dreams he had, and ended up being thrown into a pit by his brothers; they just didn’t like him. Many of us are in ‘pits’ right now, and that’s why we’re crying out saying we need something better or something more in order to please God or walk in Purpose, when in reality we’re just fed up with our circumstances. Well, Joseph didn’t stay there for the rest of his life, and neither will you. But, we have to learn patience; we have to upgrade our spiritual building code to withstand these trials. Joseph was sold into slavery and became the head servant in the house of Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s officers. God’s favor was on Joseph, and God blessed the work of his hands. Joseph honored God wherever he was and because of his devotion to God, (not laying with his master’s wife) he ended up in another pit, Pharaoh’s prison. How many of us today feel that where we are in life is like a prison? No way out; dead end; walls closing in on us. But, Joseph being committed to God and trusting God, rose to the ranks again, and became head of the prison. Eventually, Joseph made it to Prime Minister of Egypt where his dreams became reality.

What is the point of this excerpt? The point is that Joseph trusted God with his life. He was in some pretty uncomfortable situations and probably would have loved to be relieved of them immediately and go directly to the palace, BUT there was a process that Joseph had to experience first.

The job that you are on today is apart of that process. The horrible circumstances you are facing right now are apart of that process. The people that have thrown you into a pit, spoken negatively about you, and just out right hate you for no apparent reason, are all there because there is a process. God didn’t cause Joseph to be sold as a slave anymore than he causes people to hate us or speak bad about us. God, in His foreknowledge knows about it, and is using it for His glory. Romans 8:28 says it best:

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God; to them who are called according to His purpose.

Not our purpose, but His purpose. Don’t boycott your job; you’re messing with His purpose for your life if you do. Don’t give up and throw in the towel, promotion is coming; it’s a guarantee! It’s all a part of the process.

So then what is the purpose for process? The purpose of process is prepare you to handle power and authority. It is God’s original mandate to mankind when He told Adam to take control of the garden, to keep it, subdue it and have dominion over it. The problem is that we lost that place of authority when Adam and Eve sinned, causing Jesus to have to come to earth and die as a ransom for us all. However, most of what we hear in ‘Christian’ circles, stop right there. It never gets beyond the cross. As important as the cross may be, we allow emotion to keep us there. We wear them on pendants around our necks and erect them in our churches, saying we choose to remember Jesus dying on the cross. But what about Jesus resurrecting? If you ever notice, hardly anyone has a problem with you expressing Jesus’ death, but if you talk about His resurrection…. You are looking for trouble! This is sad. It’s sad because there is no power in death alone! Power comes through resurrection!

Acts 2:23-24 says:
23This man [Jesus] was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. 24But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.

Ephesians 1:18-23
18I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, 20which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. 22And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

Philippians 3:10-11
10That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, 11 if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Death is apart of the process to get us to that original state of man before the fall in Genesis 3. The process that Jesus went through, the processes that we all face here on earth are all designed to get us back to our place of authority and dominion over the earth. Like Paul says, “…being conformed to His death”. Surrender our will to Jesus and run with His will. Dying to self is to live for Christ. Strange enough, we will see that just like Joseph, if we do God’s will, we will end up achieving the very dreams we had in the first place. Stay on course, don’t detour; you will achieve all that God has for you!