but meaningful to me and my daily walk towards Heaven.
And then, for some reason, it was like I could hear the nay-sayers declaring,
"What? You expect me to believe He talks to you that much? about such inconsequential things? Are you one of those people who won't drive anywhere unless you hear the Lord tell you that you can? Such flaky Christians. Puh-lease."
And then, as I stood there with my hands in the soapy dish water, it was like the Lord took my face in his hands and said:
"The Church feels flaky."
Okay, Lord. Where are you going with this?
So in the middle of my kitchen, the Lord started to fill my head on the flakiness of the Church...at least the American Church as we know it.
I have no idea why. It wasn't like I was trying to think deep. I don't even use the word "flaky" outside of talking about biscuits. ;)
But it makes total sense to me now.
Think about it. As Christians, it seems that we spend a lot of time proclaiming the great works of the Lord, his amazing miraculous interventions, the power of prayer... to turn around and give Him an out.
You know, a reason why He ISN'T and most assuredly won't be doing all those great things in your/my life.
Like instantaneous healings. parting the proverbial waters of our hard circumstances...like debt or divorce or addictions. Or giving us a fish with money in its mouth.
Crazy, wild, amazing God-things like that.
Because really, if the Body of Christ didn't feel flaky and shaky in our beliefs and in our ability to truly mirror the power of Jesus...we wouldn't be focusing our energy on baking cookies for snack time during our cell groups.
We'd be focusing our energy on getting out there and showing people outside of the church the presence and power of God.
Because who, in their right mind, can resist that??? There's not an Atheist out there, when presented with the mind-boggling love and healing power and freeing presence of God that could walk away in good conscience.
If we truly felt we had a Heavenly backing to the Biblical truths we say we cling to, I'd image that we'd be focusing our energy on populating the expanse of Heaven. instead of silently watching people flood the gates of Hell, all the while clutching our bibles and declaring "Jesus saves".
or being okay with watching the blind walk by without the compassion and healing of Jesus rising up in us and declaring "be healed!".
or casually acknowledging that cancer is running rampant and has become the expected norm. all without batting an eyelash.
We say we know that God heals. But then we just count it as "modern day Christianity" when we don't see Him doing it. WHY? WHY? WHY?
Trust me, I'm shouting at myself here.
I've seen him heal before. But am I giving him the chance to show up TODAY?
Or does my inaction reveal that I just expect to have a sick person fall into my hands and yank the words out of my mouth?
I have friends who go to Walmart to pray for the sick. I've heard of people who go to the morgue to pray for the dead.
Yeah...let that one sink in for a minute.
When I first heard that, part of me was like "Huh. that's nice. terribly uncomfortable. but how...nice."
Me? I'll take serving on a ministry team at the front of the church any ol' day. Let the sick and hurting people come to me. If they truly want to be healed, they'll find someone to pray for them."
Okay, so I didn't actually say that...but I'm sure if I probed my ugly heart, I would have found something shockingly close to that ridiculous sentiment hanging around.
THAT is flaky.
I believe we're coming into a time where we have got to SEE the manifest presence of God to
As the world becomes more and more in your face with blatant sin and the "what of it?" attitude, we have got to pull down the presence and power of God. unapologetically. without fear of failure. without wimpy faith.
The verse "on earth as it is in Heaven" has been on my heart a lot recently. Because within the gates of Heaven, there is no sickness. no depression. no isolation. no outcasts. no disease. Period.
I want so deeply to possess the power of God that walks in the authority that calls that Truth into existence in this realm. the manifest power that obliterates all flakiness of my thinking. all shakiness in my faith.
God's offering it. I just need to walk in it. and throw off whatever the heck it is that holds me back.
