Hands-on Knowledge

“If you love me, you will obey my commands. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” – John 8:31b-32

When I was in college, I had a chemistry class. The chapter happened to be on chemical reactions and there was the formula for touch explosive there, along with information about the chemical reaction that caused the explosion. I called my brother, who was an avid fan of explosives and said,

“Dude, I know how to make touch explosive”.

His response? “It’s easier in deer hunting season.”

“Huh?” I thought… “What does he mean by that?”

He went on, “Yeah, the hardest to get chemical is then at Walmart, because people use it to cover their scent when hunting. Oh, and don’t make too much of it at one time, otherwise it can set itself off on the toaster oven and scare your roommate half to death.”

Who really knew touch explosive? Sure, I had read about it in a textbook and 100% of what I learned was factual, but I didn’t really understand it. I didn’t have the experience my brother had. I think that’s like a lot of believers today. There’s an understanding of God and a deep understanding of scripture, but nothing replaces that experiential practice of living out the word of God.

We want to know the truth before we act. We want God to convince us that what He’s told us to do is right, but Jesus said it doesn’t work like that… It’s only after you obey that you’ll understand. When you read a scripture, are you looking for more head knowledge? Are you looking for scriptures that say what you already believe? Or are you looking for answers for how to live? 

When you read about Abraham being told to sacrifice Isaac, are you glad He hasn’t asked you to do that, or do you search yourself for the things he is asking you to give up? The real power of the Gospel isn’t found in the words, but in the application and the obedience. We can say we know Christ like I thought when I read that formula in a textbook, or we can really get to know him, daily, with all of the reality and pain that entails.

My health has been deteriorating over the past couple weeks and I realized that my workload was the #1 thing I could do to fix it. There was really no way around the fact that I was doing too much stuff. The past two weeks, I have spent quite a bit of time telling people no. I have called to cancel a couple key contracts, including the one that was keeping our family financially afloat. It was good money but the stress and always-on hours inevitably occurred during my quiet time or on vacation. Carla has complained that many vacations had been ruined by it, and I struggled to delegate it. A phone call could be in multiple languages from multiple countries about anything from networking to system analysis to a crashed server, and unlike our website business, it was 100% on my shoulders. I knew it was bad when she said she would support me cutting the contract even if it meant moving into a smaller house or getting by without a personal car, but thank God for that kind of support.

I am again in a place where I need faith, again in a place where I am waiting for the Lord to break through. But instead of dreading that place, I think we should all greatly desire it. After all, when things are going well, I end up spending less time with God, and my prayers aren’t as fervent!

 

It Doesn't Take a Prophet to See Sin

When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is - that she is a sinner.”

Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.” 

"Tell me, teacher," he said. -Luke 7:39-40 (NIV)

I find these verses are a key paradigm shift for most people. Most of us think exactly the way Simon does - that hearing from God means seeing someone’s sin. That if you see with God’s eyes, then we are dirty, filthy, and dreadfully sinful. They are afraid of getting too close to God for exactly this reason. However, God is standing in the room, and he has different thoughts. Yes he sees the sin but he sees much more than that. He sees beyond the sin and into her transformation and love.

Simon thinks exactly like most people do today - that God sees us principally with our sin. That it takes God to see our sin. However, it doesn’t take a prophet to see sin - in fact, most people can see it and everyone in that room knew the kind of woman that was there. What does take God’s perspective for is to see deeper into the person, to see what God’s plans for them are and to call them to it.

This is my favorite part of being a believer - in Christ, we can pray and see things that do not yet exist in the physical. We can see what God is calling people to, not just what they are or what they’ve done. We can see with the eyes of heaven and have hope where others have none.

 

Multiplication

 “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.” -Genesis 1:28

We were made to manage and govern. What starts with control of our own lives grows to governing a family, a small group, various projects, then employees, departments, and organizations… The more faithful you are, the more God puts you in charge of. I’ve seen this happen even with stay-at-home moms; when they govern their kids wisely, other parents flock to them to hear their advice. While their domain may appear small to our eyes, the reality is a much larger impact.

The results of good governance can be seen in these verses: fruitfulness and multiplication. Whenever something is being managed well, it will multiply. While I have usually only looked at these verses from a people perspective (that we are supposed to multiply people) I actually think it goes much deeper, talking about all aspects of our lives like the rest of the passage is saying. Multiplication:

• Deals with a geometric increase, and has a compound interest-like growth curve. Addition can be seductive because you get results faster and quicker. In multiplication if you do the right thing for 20 years, you may see little to no fruit for the first 10, then the growth starts and the impact is way more than addition.
• Multiplication implies the fruitfulness of the fruit. For example, in finances getting a salary is addition; every month the amount goes up. But that money isn’t producing more money, whereas in an investment it would be. Addition to the church is where we are adding people to the pews but not training them. Full discipleship is multiplication, and each disciple in turn creates other disciples. Even though the process is painful and slow, when the compounding effect kicks in there is great fruit.
• Multiplication can work in positive and negative directions. 10 x 5 is 50, but -10 times the same number is -50. We need to be careful when we have been elevated in governance because both our strengths and weaknesses are multiplied.

We spend so much time in management setting goals and talking about what are positive results, and it drastically changes depending on what you are managing. However, in one word, God sums up all of his expectations and the results of good management: multiplication. It’s absolutely true… In the library I want people who can multiply the attendance and impact of the books, in the sewing school I want people who can multiply their teaching and products, in the IT sector I want people who can multiply my investment in them.

I am also amazed at how different from accepted reality this one word is… Most people think good management is stability; things will look just like when you left them, but we need to know God expects more and to the people under us we need to give them the freedom and expectation of multiplication.

 

Limited Bodies

We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long to put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing… While we live in these earthly bodies, we groan and sigh, but it’s not that we want to die and get rid of these bodies that clothe us…. God himself has prepared us for this, and as a guarantee he has given us his Holy Spirit.-- 2 Cor 5:2-5 NLT

If everything was already perfect, why would we be looking for new bodies and new homes? I long for the day where I don’t have pain in my back, where my foot fungus totally goes away, and when this body that has so little energy gets rejuvenated and doesn’t hold me back.

The thing that hits me as I’m reading now is the part about the guarantee being the Holy Spirit. Will our new bodies have the Holy Spirit? The way Paul is saying this - in some versions, he says a downpayment - it sounds like the Holy Spirit is a taste of our new bodies, and through it we get a glimpse of what it means to live in our new bodies.

That makes sense to me. Often it seems like the spirit in me wasn’t built for this earthly body. It doesn’t dream or have vision only of the possible, and doesn’t seem limited by the same constraints as the rest of me. The spirit sees and acts with the resources, energy and vision of heaven and I am stuck here; human, frail, limited and utterly incapable.

As Carla will tell you, I pace. I pace a lot. I wake up early in the morning, visions of what can be and what may be possible. I wake up in the middle of the night, interceding for the poor with a body that wants to go back to sleep and a spirit that thinks it can single-handedly change a country. While most people are doing their own thing waiting for God to give them orders, I am brooding how I only have 70 more years to make an impact for the kingdom. Only 70 more years to give poverty and darkness the biggest black eye I can muster.

The spirit in me doesn’t seem to understand the limitations of my body, or my bank account, or my team. It dreams. It groans. And I can fully believe it was created for another kind of body and reality - one without these paltry limitations.

 

Elizabeth's Place

Mary stayed with Elizabeth about three months and then went back to her own home. -Luke 1:56

Elizabeth’s place was a place of sanctuary, a place of refuge before Mary had to go back and face her reality. It had people who believed her and believed in her. It had people that were doing things differently, walking by faith and not by sight. It had 2 clearly visible miracles in the house - the one of Elizabeth’s birth and the one of Zechariah’s mute-ness; both awe-inspiring signs from the Lord.

What was one of the keys of Mary’s pregnancy? Be around others pregnant with a vision. It is important to be around others who have also been called by God for a work. This builds faith and encouraged everyone; another sign we were never supposed to do life alone! 

An angel showed up and told Mary what would happen to her. Every day for 9 months, she struggled and fought the what ifs, the condemning stares, the people who thought she was obviously a liar. Every day, she had to wake up and go through life where the reality of what she saw with her eyes didn’t match the reality of what she was told by the angel. She had pain, difficulty, and uncertainty, but her time with other believers of vision helped her. Whenever she hit rock bottom, God would send people to believe in her; first Elizabeth and later Joseph.

So what was the order? The plan came from God, then was given to Mary. It was encouraged by other people with the same calling but of different locations. After she had to go back to her circumstances, God sent her the team (Joseph) that would actually carry out the plan.

I can actually see the same thing with Equip Mozambique… It wasn’t our plan to go back; in fact, we wanted to go anywhere except Mozambique! God initiated. Then we got all of our intercessor friends together and we all prayed about it. We were lifted up, encouraged and blessed, but it was just us that had to get on that plane and actually live out the vision.

While we were here though, the vision was still forming. We didn’t yet have a team of people who had been called for the same mission as us. Slowly but surely God started forming the team. He put the right people in the right places and though they weren’t the ones that were pregnant, they chose to marry the vision and connect their destiny with ours.

Lord, teach me daily how you work. Show me your ways, and help me be an encouragement in the lives of others.

 

Mary

How did Mary treat the vision that God had given her?

First, the vision was confirmed by God, then by herself. Then it was confirmed by Elizabeth. She was able to stay with Elizabeth for 3 months, with people that believed in her and her call. I believe that fortification was necessary for the pain she would experience when she returned home.

In Equip Mozambique, how can we become a household of Zechariah and Elizabeth? How can we become a place that people pregnant with vision and purpose are safe, encouraged, and ministered to? I need to talk about this with the staff and I need to make sure they understand that we need to be welcoming and inviting.

Earlier in the chapter we see that Elizabeth had her own miracle. She had been faithful for many years, she was older, and married to a priest. Her miracle and vision was lesser, but still she rejoiced with Mary. This is a key factor in becoming a place where visions can mature and be born - lack of envy. We have to be okay if someone else’s vision is larger than ours, if their calling is larger or if they are more talented.