Fire On Your Head

Have you ever felt like you just “got” something, and it made sense to you, but not to anybody else, and when you try to articulate it you sound like a babbling child who can’t put words together, because you don’t know how to explain it? Like you’ve downloaded some big file on your computer, but you didn’t have the right ‘zip’ program to unpack it all and put it to use? Well that is what this entry is like for me–and writing it and putting articulate thought to it is, in a way harder to do than having a conversation with someone about it with their interactive input or clarification on thoughts. So, that’s my disclaimer. And now, here I go and unload it all. I hope it makes some sense to y’all, and this is my official ‘end of the year’ New Year’s themed entry. You’ll be like “huh”, but trust me and follow me to the end…

Here is a revelation of the age we are in, and the age to come that many believers don’t seem to have a functional understanding of. If we did, the Body of Christ would live way differently than we do.

This age we live in is a temporary one. The one to come, is eternal. Where are you dwelling? Where are you planted?

The kingdom of God has already broken through into this realm, and not yet completely, both at the same time. The instant Jesus died on the cross, the powers and principalities of the air, and the results of the fall of man were defeated. But, in a sense–and this almost sounds heretical if I don’t choose my words carefully–not everything has been 100% implemented yet and still won’t be (so to speak) until Jesus Christ returns. Jesus has not begun to rule the new earth and new heavens, but He is sitting at the right hand of the Father, now. Meanwhile, the “present evil age” spoken of in Scripture (Gal 1:4) is passed, and still in the process of passing away. It has come to an end, but in our realm of understanding the concept of time, has not ‘been completed’ yet.

So in effect, we are in overlapping ages. We are in the already and not yet of the age to come, and the present and “passing away” of the evil age that the kingdom of heaven has defeated and ousted. The kingdom of God is ‘here’ and ‘not yet’ simultaneously without contradiction.

Is your head spinning yet? I think that’s as concise as I know how to put it, but re-read that a couple of times if you really can’t figure out what I’m trying to say.

With that all being said, where we live and dwell, and how we make our decisions shows which age we’re living for. Being stuck in this present age is a sign of immaturity, and being stuck and based out of the age to come while living here on this earth at this present time, is a sign of maturity.

What realm do you live your existence in?

If Jesus returned today, would you be mad or disappointed that you never got to fulfill your ministry ambitions? If you’re single and reading this, would you be disappointed He didn’t wait longer until after you could get married first? What about your education, secular or ‘sacred’—would you be upset with Him in your heart that He came to set up His kingdom before you could start your career and live the American dream, own a nice car, house and white picket fence? Which life are you focused on?

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.
For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope
that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.
And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees?
But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
Romans 8:18-25

The nature of the kingdom of God is already here in our possession but not yet have all things been brought into subjection or given to us. All of creation is groaning, and waiting for us to get our act together. The children of God are groaning for the age to come—or are you fixed on this age and the cares of this life?

As verse 8 says, the sufferings of this present time (evil age) are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us (age to come).

I guess with all the stuff that is going through my mind right now, as we end one year and begin another, my thoughts and the shape of my ideas come out as this entry and this message, with the backdrop I’ve laid out so far. Instead of writing about my thoughts on the year to come, and focusing on the year gone by I’d rather focus on the present, and say to any reading that need to hear this, whatever you’re going through, you’ve got to leave it in the past—it won’t last or survive or have any significance in the age to come. As the U2 song says, walk on and leave it behind.

Many of us have gone through our shakings, and things have been broken off of us and we couldn’t imagine how we’d handle it much longer, but we did, and we came out stronger. Some feel that way right now. In Hebrews 12:26 we are told God has promised “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” The next verse goes on to say that this phrase indicates “the removal of things that are shaken–that is, things that have been made–in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain.” The things we get broken off of us, are merely the stuff from this age, this life, in order that what remains is only the stuff that lasts in the age and kingdom to come. The more attached we are to the things of this temporary realm, the more painful that shaking is when it happens. I have people that come to mind and on my heart right now–who I know will never read this–but if they did, I wish I could take pain they’re going through away or encourage them to redeem it and not let it go to waste. I know that nothing we go through is for loss, but for gain eternally. This life is but a vapor, so leave the crap behind in that vapor that will disappear!

Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward.
For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.
For, “Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay;
but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.”
Hebrews 10:36-38

In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials,
so that the tested genuineness of your faith–more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire–may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
1 Peter 1:6-7

And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.
1 Peter 5:10

This life is just a little while. After this little while comes the eternity which is based on THIS little while! John Bevere writes an amazing allegory that takes up about 1/3 of his newest book, Driven by Eternity, about these characters who live in and train in a school, and then go off into their ‘professional’ lives, always under the impression that in ten years they will be taken before the king, and judged for what they did with their ten year period in preparation for life under this ruler’s kingdom, and rewarded or punished accordingly. Only, they are all gathered suddenly and unexpectedly after only 5 years, and now are going to be judged according to what they did with that five year period of their life. I strongly suggest and recommend reading this book if you want to be rattled and challenged about what realm you’re living your focus in.

To get back into the overlapping of the ages we’re in, the ‘little while’ temporariness clashes with eternity here, and it produces suffering. It produces testing for us to overcome, that we may be fit for that eternity. We are supposed to live victoriously above this world during the age, but it should never steal our focus off the age to come. This little while is a reference to a time of testing common to mankind. Don’t get me wrong, we only are saved through faith in Jesus Christ, but all things will be put through the fire.

The fire that purifies gold also turns what is not of gold to ashes. Malachi 4:1-3 states in clear detail the way the godly will be purified, and the wicked will be ashes under their feet, but the idea is that we need to be people that will withstand the fire, and not be vaporized both then and by the fiery trials of life. We are told in 1 Corinthians 3:12-15 that what we build in this life will be tested with fire, and those that suffer loss are the ones who build with wood, hay, and straw—the things that are seen above the surface of the ground. Are the things in your life that are seen by all going to burn up in that day? This is precisely why there will be many ministries in that day, doing mighty glorious works and who are even anointed powerfully, and they will have their works burned up with nothing to show for it, saying to Jesus “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ (Matt 7:21-23). They built a ministry in this lifetime that was seen by many, but had no eternal or everlasting significance in the kingdom to come.
The gold, silver and precious stones, those are the things buried and hidden. Do you have things said and done in secret that are worthy of being shouted from rooftops in that day? Those are the things that will withstand the fire.

The things some of you are going through, the things that make you want to cave in and give up, are meant to purify you, whether it feels like it or not. Wounds heal, and the scars are badges for eternity. Experience the moment you’re in with faith, courage, and dignity—don’t pretend it’s not happening. Sometimes lamenting can be the greatest form of worship. But the scars you will obtain, are the result of wounds that got healed. Redeem your suffering and make it count for eternity, and turn those wounds into battle scars.

As you enter the New Year, pondering what was, determine in your heart you will be made strong by what has been, and redeem it for the age to come, and leave behind in the age that’s passing away, what needs to be forgotten and left behind.

On with the forward march,

Steve

I’ve already written an entry like this before, but with a different passage of Scripture. In fact, the only reason I do it is because sometimes the best way to teach something, is to take peoples’ assumptions and use them on Scripture to make the point that the assumptions may/could/possibly/might be wrong. It’s just a possibility, and I’d like to explore it.

For example: I want to point out a common misconception, again about the prophetic. My definition of prophetic is not rapture teaching stuff, but I mean it in regard to prophesying and speaking forth words from the Lord, that one function of it is foretelling future things you can only know from God revealing it to you–but another common aspect is when you’re ministering to someone, you somehow “know” something about them you couldn’t possibly know other than God revealing it to you. It could come in the form of something in their past is really tripping them up and the problem you’re helping them with is rooted in that issue, and they never would know how to deal with it otherwise except for a divine revelation. That’s just one example of operating in words of knowledge—getting knowledge about something that you couldn’t know other than God telling you in order to edify, exhort and encourage (1 Cor. 14:3).

I’ve noticed one all-too-common sacred cow in evangelical circles, and even some charismatics (but not as much) and it’s the idea that if someone prophesies 99 things accurately that come to pass, but they say one thing that fails, they are a false prophet. How come if a teacher or pastor shares and preaches like 10 correct doctrines, but is mistaken about one thing, he’s not a “false pastor” or “false teacher”? Why the weird over-emphasis on correction in just prophets? Or if a healing evangelist holds crusades and hundreds get healed, but not every individual in the building gets out of their wheelchair, we label him a false teacher or healer, but if an evangelist preaches to thousands and only 2% get saved and respond to the altar call, we call that a successful event? (Any number of salvations makes a work successful, I just wish to poke fun at the double standards.)

I noticed something in Scripture the other day while reading Isaiah. It really rocked my world and made me say out loud “OH! How come I never thought of that when people say [fill in the blank] to me about healing or prophesying?!”

It’s found in chapter 38 of Isaiah. I may sound like I’m trying to weave two different topics or blog entries together in one, and forgive me if it’s a little disjointed as a result. But look closely at verse 1:

In those days Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him, and said to him, “Thus says the LORD: Set your house in order, for you shall die, you shall not recover.”

Isaiah comes to the king, and tells him a “Thus says the Lord.” We charismatics use that as slang a lot to indicate someone is telling us something that will happen in our lives. Isaiah tells Hezekiah something WILL happen. Period. And Scripture doesn’t record more, so anything more about that conversation or encounter is pure speculation because we don’t have more details. But I notice, what was NOT included here, were any options. Isaiah didn’t tell him he “might die IF…” but told him “you shall die, you shall not recover.” At least as far was what we have recorded here in Scripture.
In verse 5, the Lord speaks to Isaiah again and tells him something to say to Hezekiah, which demonstrates a very common way of operating in the prophetic—hearing God tell you something to repeat to someone for their benefit and encouragement. God “changed his mind”, based on Hezekiah’s repentance and humbling himself before the Lord.

Hezekiah goes on to live another 15 years as a result of the Lord’s mercy and hearing his tears. However, does this second prophetic statement from Isaiah nullify his first? If Isaiah prophesied one thing, and then something different, does that mean he’s contradicting himself? Does that mean he’s a false prophet because the first thing didn’t come to pass? Of course not, but I’ve heard time and time again that there is no room for change—or dare I say even human error—when someone is speaking prophetically.

If this sacred cow were true, not only would Isaiah be a false prophet, but so would Jonah, as I’ve written before—because these two men both delivered bad news to people, and the people involved repented (without being told it were an option in order to avert the edict) and in Jonah’s case, what he spoke never had a follow-up to cancel the previous word! People seek the mercy of God in situations like that all the time, and God is merciful, is He not?

And to change gears and look at this from a healing perspective; this man Hezekiah was going to die, and death was at the door. The Lord healed him when he asked it of Him, and added 15 years to his life. I’ve heard people discount any miracles of dead-raisings or reports of it, not because of lack of credibility of the report, or openness to the possibility it could happen—but because of the verse in Hebrews 9:27 that says it is appointed once to die and then after that comes the judgment. I wonder how they explain this incident in Scripture? By the way, I don’t have a problem with Calvinists, I have a problem with “hyper-Sovereignty” teaching that would say something like “God knew he would repent, so he had Isaiah say what he did, in order to motivate the king to repent, because He was going to heal him all along, and intended his lifespan to be that extra 15 years anyway”. Maybe God did, I don’t pretend to be sophisticated enough to wrap my brain around this kind of stuff, but it sounds mostly like just posturing and explaining in order to uphold the doctrine of predestination (predestination the way it’s taught anyway) when something comes up in Scripture to make that subject more difficult to understand, or dare I say, if a Scripture contradicts the teaching. But I digress.

I personally don’t subscribe to the form of Calvinism that basically teaches things like all of history is mapped out and we walk through it as God planned no matter what choices we make. I believe, especially after looking at passages where persons or entire nations repent and avert judgment, that clearly history and future occurrences are not as airtight as some would claim, or else God would be a liar when He tells His prophets to proclaim things that wind up not happening, and God cannot lie. There are conditions to a lot of things. There are a lot of “how comes” and ‘what ifs” regarding the Sovereignty of God if the way most Christians teach it is correct.

But I’m getting a little side-tracked. Back to the healing thing I wanted to look at. I’m not well-studied enough on this to know if this is true or not, but someone once told me, and I’m trying my hardest not to misquote them, but it was that stupid—that God letting Hezekiah live another 15 years was a mistake, because during that extra chunk of his life, he became the father of Manasseh, who then became king after his father, and was the worst king in Israel’s history, shed more blood than any other, gave who knows how many babies to Molech, etc… The historical account that that did happen under Manasseh’s reign is true, but most people forget the massive repentance and reformation in his later life—but my point is, the data may be correct, but that is a pathetic interpretation of the ways of the Lord.

I asked this person–it was like three or four years ago, so I vaguely remember details, but I’m sure my response was something like—‘you mean to tell me, God makes mistakes and you and I know better than Him what He should have done?’ This person spoke some more without really answering, and waxed eloquent so as to not have to admit that their assumption is a false attribute of God, but yet was necessary for their point of view.

My brain hurts thinking about all this stuff like if God should have healed Hezekiah or not, because doing so inadvertently caused massive bloodshed under the reign of the king that reigned after him. Good grief! Are Christians so pessimistic and negative, that it’s impossible to concede the idea God maybe is FOR us, and that PEOPLE make poor decisions and He unhashes his plan “around” human free will? I’m not going there with this entry, it’s too all over the place as it is.

But, to tie this all up somehow so we can call it a blog entry: There are several people in Scripture who proclaimed things that never came to pass, and are not false prophets for it. And, God is good, and heals whether we think it was right of Him or not.

Blessings for now.

by David Ravenhill

I’m convinced that the carnal, cunning, conniving, crooked crooks that Jesus drove out of the Temple are still among us today. These modern day moneychangers are forever devising new and deceptive doctrines to defraud God’s people out of His/their money. These masters of deceit have now set up their changing tables throughout the Christian television industry.

I’m absolutely certain that if Jesus returned today He would walk into the vast majority of these television studios and overthrow the cameras, lights, monitors, and soundboards. He would unplug the microphones and scatter the makeup colors around as He went about destroying the stages and backdrops.

Several years ago now, a nationally know prophetic voice was told by the Lord, “I’m sick and tired of the prosperity message”. If that was true then, how much more today. As far back as 1986, the top seven media evangelists took in over 750 million dollars. Now with the increased manipulation of ’seed faith teaching’ that amount has no doubt been dwarfed by comparison.

Only a few days ago I was appalled as I watched and listened as Pastor Steve__________ zealously twisted and distorted the Scriptures to his own advantage. This ‘brother’ dared to distort the most sacred truth of all Scripture. He used The Day Of Atonement, that day when Jesus Christ the Lamb of God shed His blood for the sins of the world, to teach that how we give financially determines how God will respond to us throughout the coming year. My blood boiled as I listened. This ‘brother’ had finally crossed the line and was now on the verge of blaspheming the atoning work of our blessed Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, not to mention lining his own pockets with the proceeds. He might as well have been selling indulgences by inferring that God’s favor toward us was based on our giving rather than God’s unmerited grace and forgiveness through the gift of His Son. What made matters worse was that this same ‘charlatan’ was the guest of one of the nation’s best known charismatic personalities. Within a day or so he was teaching the same message on a local Christian telethon. Neither the evangelist nor the network sought to correct his aberrant teaching – after all, the show must go on and that takes money, so how you raise it doesn’t seem to matter anymore.

Why does almost every single Christian program have to end with some type of ’seed faith teaching’? If these men and women of faith really believed what they taught, they would practice what they preach and teach; after all what’s good for the goose is good for the gander. Imagine how shocked you would be if your favorite televangelist and covenant partner were to send you a check in their next mailing for the amount of $1,000.00 with a personal note telling you he/she just wanted to sow into your life. Perhaps then I could believe that these men/women really believe and practice what they teach. Not only that, but they would never have to appeal for money again as God’s return to them would result in a hundredfold increase. At least that’s what they would have us to believe.

On a recent ministry trip to the Northwest, I was told by a pastor friend that his church had received a call from a well known and anointed teacher in the Body of Christ. The caller was asking them for a contribution towards the purchase of a jet for their ministry. What a far cry from what the Apostle Paul taught when he prefaced his teaching on ’sowing and reaping’ with these words; “For this is not for the ease of others and for your affliction, but by way of equality.” (II Cor. 8:13-14) Many pastors measure their success in terms of numbers -the larger the church the more successful their ministry. Itinerant ministries, not being able to brag about size, seem to fall for the notion that having one’s own jet is how success is determined. (Once it was the Rolex watch) By the way, if you love and appreciate this fine teacher, pray that he won’t get the desires of his heart – it will only lead to the leanness of his soul.

This is one man’s attempt to appeal to the Body of Christ. Stop pandering to these moneychangers. These men and women live like kings while spending your money to buy mansions and jets for themselves. They dine in the finest restaurants, wear the latest designer fashions and then have the audacity to tell you that you can live the same way as long as you give to their ministry.

I opened my Bible the other day to Zechariah’s wonderful prophecy concerning the first coming of Jesus, our great and glorious King. Listen to his words; ‘Behold your King is coming to you; He is just and endowed with salvation, humble, and mounted on a donkey, even on a colt the foal of a donkey.’( Zechariah 9:9 ) What a far cry from the televangelist who comes high and mighty and traveling on his own jet!

If you are as sick and tired as I am about this waste of God’s money, then for heaven’s sake STOP SUPPORTING THESE PEOPLE. Give your money to your local church. There are tens of thousands of needy missionaries who barely have enough support to keep themselves alive. They are laboring long and hard under some of the most difficult and trying conditions. They would rejoice at the thought of an extra $10-30 dollars a month support. These are the real heroes of whom the world is not worthy. Help put these MONEY LOVING TELEVANGELISTS OUT OF BUSINESS and SAVE ANOTHER MISSIONARY FROM EXTINCTION.Together we can make it happen. Please forward this to as many people as you know.
Thanks.

David Ravenhill

Or “Teams that practice at 6am win games at 7pm.”

This is not going to be heavily theological but just simply one of those “I was thinking lately…” entries and try spitting some thoughts out in a concise manner.

I’ve been amused in the last year to be called the “L” word by some interesting characters.
But talking about what is OK and what is not, is not the intention of this entry. I want to veer off into another thing that it doesn’t matter what your personal convictions about prayer, personal holiness, how we spend our time, and personal life disciplines. But, my intended reader of today’s entry are those of you who have clearly never noticed Paul said “everything is permissible but not everything is beneficial for me.”

For example, there is nothing wrong or sinful with watching TV or movies in and of themselves. You could even be watching clean ones, but if it is at the expense of alone time with God, I’ll encourage you to give it up. I don’t mind a show or a movie here and there in my own life. But if you’re spending more time in personal entertainment than you are in personal commune and intimacy with God, trust me, it’s not a spiritually healthy place to be in. Try making the shift and see if I’m being “legalistic”.

I was driving to a place in town that was going to replace the van’s battery for me. As I was driving on the Parkway to the location, I just barely saw a billboard as I was driving past it enough to see its catchphraze, but had missed what the advertisement on it was for. It read “teams that practice at 6am win games at 7pm.” And I thought there’s an amazing truth to that.

How about we “Christianize” it and make it say “Christians who pray in the morning are ones that win battles in the evening“.

Or “Short public prayers are always preceeded by long private ones.” as my teacher Bob Gladstone used to say.

If two hockey teams had it out on a rink, and one team practiced several hours a day together, and their opponents didn’t, but played video games and watched TV all day while eating pizza and drinking lots of soda, and didn’t even come together until it was time to put their skates on and play that match–which team do you think would win? It would be a total fluke if the couch potatoes won, but otherwise most of us expect it would be the well-disciplined team.

Now, let’s spiritualize this and add what I see happen in Christian circles all the time: Imagine the game is over, both teams are exiting the rink and walking to their locker rooms, and fans are lined up outside the entrance of the winning team’s change room, and only a few are at the losing team’s door. A little boy asks one of the star players of the winning team how he prepares for these games. The player starts listing off his morning routine, including practicing with the team several hours, and gets into his own personal workout regimend and talks about how many push-ups and sit-ups he does, what his diet is like, etc… The boy is then fascinated and challenged about his own self-discipline in comparison to his hero’s, and inspired by this testimony is encouraged to start eating less junk food among other things.

Meanwhile, the opposing team’s locker room door is not many feet away from the winning team’s (I know this is not true in real life, and they’re usually on other sides of the arena, but bear with me for this imperfect analogy), and the team’s captain is standing within earshot, since there are practically no fans standing around his team’s door waiting for an autograph. So for about thirty seconds, he listens to the other player as he shares his morning routine with this little boy, and he balks at it in disgust and mumbles “that guy is so legalistic.” In fact, he’s bitter listening to the other player because deep down he knows all that excercise has paid off in this man’s physical strength, accompanied with the group effort causing the team to be winners consistently. He knows the team dynamic is stronger as a result of practicing together his commitment has paid off. However, instead of this defeated athlete changing his own lifestyle, he just scorns the winning athlete for his success.

You’re laughing as you think about that, right? I laugh too when I hear most Christians throw around the word “legalistic” in description or reference to some others’ lifestyles. Ok, hockey players won’t use the word legalistic in describing self-discipline, I know, but I wanted to replace it with that word to make my point.

Discipline in the Christian life is not legalistic. Try it some time: Try praying in tongues for an hour and then start watching TV and see how your spirit feels. Or, try watching TV for a pro-longed amount of time, and then pray in tongues for at least 15 minutes, and tell me if it’s any harder. Tell me the difference your stomach feels between eating a banana and eating a slice of pizza.

I’ll never forget when I was sixteen years old my friend Matt was on my highschool’s rowing team. He told me one time before a morning practice, he smoked just one cigarette, which he had never done before in his life. Then he went to his practice and used one of the rowing machines, and he said in mere moments he felt a tremendous difference on his lungs, and was out of breath faster. He looked me in the eye when recounting that and said something like “I’m never smoking another cigarette again if that’s the difference it makes to my performance.” He was focused, he was not going to let the slightest thing hinder him from his goals.

The author of Hebrews told us to do this when he said “let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perserverance the race marked out for us” (Heb 12:1). But if my experience tells me anything, merely suggesting ways this applies to the Christian life will get me labeled legalistic the instant I name sins or hindrances to a spiritual walk with God. I don’t care, I bet star athletes laugh when they hear people in worse physical shape than they talk about how excericise isn’t necessary, and that “all hockey players are equally good hockey players”. I know bunches of Christians who are entertainment pushers. When you get around them all they talk about is the latest movie or the latest episode of Lost or Survivor. Don’t get me wrong, I love a few good TV shows myself now and again myself, but if that’s what dominates your fellowship with other people, or dominates enough so as to replace anything in your walk with God–something is wrong. I know a bunch of people, if you even SUGGEST something is wrong to watch, or even listen to–then man, you are just being judgmental and legalistic and out of touch with culture. There’s no room for the possibility of improving ourselves and casting off such hindrances. Leonard Ravenhill used to say that entertainment is the devil’s substitute for joy.

One time, a friend of mine, very angrily and with a lot of cussing told me that he doesn’t fast or speak in tongues and he’s “just as close to God as anyone”. There’s truth, and tragic misconception to that statement simultaneously. Yes, all believers have the same access to the Father, but are all on the same level of intimacy with Him? Does each of us USE that access all the time accordingly? Do we all spend the same amount of time alone in prayer with Him or have the same personal history with Him? Of course not. Fasting, prayer and speaking to ourselves in tongues doesn’t get us closer to God than someone that doesn’t do any of those things at all. But I guarantee you there’s a difference in the lives of those two people. It simply helps remove layers of our flesh and crucify it so that there’s less in the way in our relating to God. Prayer, fasting, and praying in tongues don’t change God or make Him become closer to us, they fix us. A fruitbearing tree is one that has its roots sunk deep in good soil and gets proper refreshment–all of this is demonstrated in the kind of fruit we bear in our lives.

I can tell you from being a ministry school student and from serving in ministry now, that I have seen first hand the difference between ministering out of the place of intimacy vs. spending my time entertaining myself in my spare time, and seeing a marked difference in both my lifestyle, and my minstry results. I heard someone preaching on this once, and started getting angry on the inside at him when I heard this kind of teaching, because I knew what the “non-sinful things” in my life were that I didn’t want to avail myself of…until he said the reason he didn’t watch TV or a lot of movies, was because he used to see large crowds during altar calls, and operated dramatically in the prophetic giftings. But he told me the difference came when he let his prayer life slip, and found himself doing more foolish things with his time such as video games and TV. Then when he went to preach he had markedly less results. When he fixed these things in his life, and started communing with the Holy Spirit more again, and cut out of his life the junk he’d let in, he saw the Holy Spirit move powerfully in his life.

Friends, we need a relationship with God on an ongoing basis more than we need correct doctrine about what is allowed and what isn’t in the Christian life. Am I negating the importance of correct doctrine? Nope. But I have seen something over the years that shows me many people who overzealously study doctrine are some of the more critical and mean people I know. Some of them will blast you with their assessment of what’s wrong in your life, but have no idea how to do so with gentleness and grace–the kind that come from being alone with the Father.

Adding a little personal self-discipline is one of the best things you could do, and is hardly legalistic. Give it some thought. What could you stand to axe from your life?