The New Be Attitudes. . .

Many years ago during one of my prayer times, I apologized to God for asking so many questions. Immediately, I heard in my mind the following response: Ask the questions now while you can because before long, you'll be too busy to ask. Sure enough, not too long after that, our fellowship entered a season of on-the-job-training involving intercession, ministry, and deliverance that occurred almost nightly over the duration of several months. These months were the best of times and the worst of times, and oh, how I wished I had asked a million more questions than I had.

If what the prophetic is saying is true, we are about to enter another of those seasons and need to be prepared. What did we learn from the last season that may fortify us for this next?  1 Peter 1 expresses some of these attitudes. I call them the new be-attitudes.  

• We must be alert and disciplined, thinking clearly and exercising self-control.

• We must be focused, looking forward to the return of Christ and His kingdom rule.

• We must be obedient, willing to follow the Holy Spirit's lead and do whatever He asks us to. We are God's children, and He longs for obedient children.

• We must be merciful and just and loving and generous in all and to all. God desires to have sons and daughters just like Him. He asks us to be holy because He is holy.

• We must be totally devoted to Him. He has set us apart for Himself. We are to be different than the world.

• We must be empowered by the Holy Spirit. His current must flow to us and through us to those around us; otherwise, our energies are nothing but wind.

• We must be thankful and joyful, grateful for all God is and all He has done and is going to do, and we must be these in both the good times and the bad. Frances Roberts says that joy is the natural climate of heaven. (Come Away, My Beloved)

• We must be genuine. God desires honesty in us and with each other. 

• We must be-lieve. Period!

• We must be receivers. Leonard Sweet says that from a Biblical perspective, a theology of receiving comes before a theology of giving. He says that one of the most dangerous spiritual problems anyone can have is to be a better giver than a receiver because God's fundamental category is giver; our fundamental category is receiver. By being better givers than receivers, we place ourselves in God's category. He calls this a "God complex."  (Soul Salsa)

Now is not the time to sleep.

There is so much out there that God desires to give us, but we have to be humble enough to receive it and to receive it through any means God so desires to use. We must be reverent toward Him which simply means to have a healthy respect for Him. We shouldn't ignore Him or treat Him casually.  He is God, and we are not. We must be worshippers of the one true God. We must honor Him with our time, energy, and money.

• We must be life-long students of Jesus. We must know His word. This is a never-ending task.  There are no graduates in His university.

• We must be hopeful, full of Jesus. Just think, the "Hope" of all the world lives inside of us, and He promises that one day, when He appears, we will be like Him. What a precious promise!

• Finally, we must be prayerful. I think this last attitude is one of the most important. I don't know if we'll be able to make it through the days to come if prayer isn't a priority. Watchman Nee says that our weakness is most easily manifested in prayer, that nothing in the spiritual realm reveals our weakness more than this activity or the lack thereof.  (Let Us Pray)

Folks, I write these thing, not because I've arrived but because I'm lacking in these areas. I desire these things because God desires these things and because I believe we are on the verge of something big. I don't know what it is, and I'm not sure if the prophetic among us knows exactly what it is.  But, that is the glorious mystery of God. If we knew, we would walk by sight and not by faith. God desires people who walk by faith. Faith pleases Him.

So, be encouraged and be diligent. Now is not the time to sleep. My prayer is that we would be prepared, looking eagerly for Him and His kingdom. May we be quick to receive from Him and to repent. May we walk in forgiveness. May our eyes not be accustomed to the darkness around us but be ever seeking His glorious light. May our hearts not be entangled in the world. May we be His faithful witnesses and have our lamps trimmed and ready. May we not lose the oil of His spirit or the bread of His presence or the wine of His love. And, may we burn brightly.

Burn, Vineyard! Burn.

~ dhandy                                    

A Prophetic Message - Part 1
From Michael . . .

If we look at what we are experiencing in our personal lives and in the life of this church, this town, this state, and this country, I don't think we can say that these experiences are a coincidence. I think God is, for lack of a better term, doing something. Of course, God is always doing something, but sometimes He's doing more of something than at other times. Look at Hebrews 12: 22-25.

But you have come to Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem; and to the myriads of angels; and to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven; and to God, the judge of all; and to the spirits of righteous men made perfect; and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant; and to the sprinkled blood which speaks better than the blood of Abel.

Just as Abel was slain by his brother, Jesus was killed by His kinsmen. He was put to death by His own nation, His own people. Abel's blood cries out for vengeance, for retribution; Jesus' blood cries out for peace, for restoration, for that which unifies His people, the church of God.  That's what the blood of Christ is crying out for today - to bring us together. With this in mind, look at Hebrews 12: 25.

See to it that you do not refuse him who is speaking, for if those did not escape who refused him who warned them on earth, much less shall we escape who turn away from Him who warns from heaven.

God's people turned away from Him because He sent them His prophets to tell them to change their ways and return to Him. Unfortunately, they killed these messengers and refused to listen to their words. If the Israelites didn't escape, how much more accountable are we who are getting direct communication from God when we do not receive it? Are we too rejecting it? Are we turning our backs on His revelation today? Do we desire our own way? I don't want any of us to reject those communiques from God. When He is speaking to our hearts and revealing what's in them, I don't want any of us to say, "I don't want to do that, Lord. I like this place. It's comfortable. I can come, and the dress is casual. The music is great, and we have great coffee."

As much as I love that stuff, that doesn't matter one whit when it comes to eternity. What matters is if we receive what God is saying. More importantly, are we taking God's word into our lives and allowing it to percolate and change us? That's the heart of God.

What does our future hold? Look at Hebrews 12: 26-27. 

At that time, His voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, "Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens."

When God came down on Mount Sinai, what happened? Tremendous billows of smoke like that from a furnace came down, and the mountain rumbled and quaked. The people were afraid and ran away. They said, "Moses, you go hear God. It's too scary for us to hear Him."  Yet, the heart of God was for everyone to hear Him, not just Moses.

The church today is much like these early Israelites. Many feel that the pastor's job is to go hear God for the people. Well, it's not just the pastor's job; all of us are responsible for hearing God. You have got to hear God for you; I have got to hear God for me. We've got to hear God for our fellowship. We don't have time to make up programs and catchy slogans and T-shirts with funny pictures on them and bumper stickers hoping somebody says, "I think those people are Christians." The scripture doesn't say that by their bumper stickers you will know them. It says that by their love you will know them. By the fruit they produce, you will know them. Look at Haggai 2: 6-7. 

"In a little while, I am going to shake the heavens and the earth, the sea also and the dry land, and I will shake all the nations. They will come with the wealth of the nations, and I will fill this house with glory," says the Lord of Hosts.

What would happen if God's glory were to come into our meeting place? It would be ugly. Probably, we would all be laid out on the floor. There won't be any dignified things going on when the glory of God fills a room. We would probably get on our faces and try to crawl out. George Fox described in his journal his first experience with the glory of God. He said that his response was, "God, stop it, lest I die. Take this away from me. I can't stand it."

God says that He is getting ready to shake once more. He's going to shake everything. Go back to Hebrews 12:27. This expression once more denotes the removing of those things that can be shaken in order that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. 

He's shaking the very core of our belief in Him. He's shaking our jobs, our homes, our friends. He's shaking everything.

In my heart, I believe that God is going to shake and that this shaking is going to cause everything that is not Him to fall away so that all that's left is His kingdom. When that happens, people are going to be running to His kingdom. They're going to want to be saved. I'm not predicting doom or gloom, but I honestly believe that God is going to shake things. 

If you take a look around and listen to our stories, I believe you'll see that He's already begun the shaking process. He's shaking us, and He's shaking the things that we've held on to. He's shaking relationships. He's shaking finances. He's shaking the very core of our belief in Him. He's shaking our jobs, our homes, our friends. He's shaking everything. He's going to have a people like in Revelation 19 who will receive those white, bright, linen robes of righteousness because they did not fall away.  They held on; they persevered. Look at Hebrews 12: 28. 

Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be filled with gratitude. An attitude of gratitude is the greatest thing we can carry around. Remember Exodus and what got the Israelites into trouble - grumbling and complaining. God takes grumbling and complaining very seriously. Let us offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe.

We have the dynamic rule of God which cannot be shaken. This rule of God does not falter or rise because of the stock market. It does not rise and fall because gas prices go to three dollars a gallon. It does not rise and fall because we have trouble in the Middle East. The dynamic reign and rule of God is for the people who are willing to embrace it, and it will stand for eternity. It will be a beacon. It will be a light on a hillside speaking into the darkness. People will see it and cry out to it.      

Furthermore, we will receive the fine, white linen from our acceptable service. We are ministers to the living God. That's our primary objective - to minister to God. Our number one priority should be to worship Him, to exalt Him in everything we do. Why? Because He needs it? No. Because we find out more about ourselves when we truly get into worship than we do at any other time because during worship, the living God comes and communes with His worshippers. When we come into the presence of the living God, we suddenly become aware of our sin. It's really as simple as that. It's not that He yells at us or screams at us, "You worthless sinner!" It's just that when we're in the presence of perfection, we suddenly realize how imperfect we are. Praise God for grace to fall upon.     

Finally, look at verse 29. Our God is a consuming fire. I don't think it's a coincidence that we've been teaching what we've been teaching. God is beginning to stir in all of our services. I think that God is preparing and refining a people. Our numbers may never be big, and that's okay. I think that we'll become like a triage in a hospital where the wounded and the destroyed come through our doors looking for help. That's why we must have the ability to hear God and to pray and to minister so that these people can receive healing and be restored. Then we can train them to do likewise.     

What we are going through is a preparatory time before the shaking really gets intense. Don't concentrate on the shaking. Forget about it. Think on God. God gave us a promise. We receive a kingdom that cannot be shaken.  God is not dependent upon anything. He's God; He's sovereign. His will exists above everything, and He truly reigns. 

During this time of preparation, our growth will be made evident. Be encouraged. Spend more time with Him. Listen for what He says. Do what He says and pray.