The Church As Left The Building Series

We can be honest with the Holy Spirit. Tell Him your fears. He is strong enough to handle any burden we place upon Him regardless of how insignificant we may think it is. I used to think God doesn’t care about little things, but the longer I serve Him the more I know He cares about anything I care about, and the longer He dwells in me, the more I care about what He cares about.

My mother is fond of telling people I am fearless. I wish that were true of me, but true to the nature of a mom, she sees me through eyes of a mother. It is true I left Columbus to start a church. I came here not knowing if I would make enough money to survive. There have been other times I have stepped out in faith and from the outside looking in it may have appeared as if I were fearless. But I promise you without the Holy Spirit by my side I would have never been able to take the first step. One such time was with Hayden. I can honestly say the journey has been worth it. The tears I shed when I held that 7lb child in my arms for the first time knowing that she was simultaneously an answer to prayer and a miracle are all worth it, but if in the beginning God had shown me the roller coaster ride of the mother saying she was leaving the man and the courts moving trial dates and the appeals process, and the back and forth with DHR and the frustration of dealing with an overwhelmed, sterile, bureaucracy that seemingly makes up things as they go along, I am not sure we would have ever embarked upon the journey. If I had known all of the pain and the tears I would have to shed to get to this point in my Christian journey in the very beginning I’m not sure I would have ever surrendered my will to the Holy Spirit. But looking back on the journey and knowing the peace, freedom and joy that‘s involved in sharing in the very nature of the creator of the universe it was worth every tear, every scale that was and continues to be ripped from my body is worth it.

God wants to release us. He wants to make us whole-perfect us-complete His work in us. We love to talk about the freedom living in the spirit gives but we live like we are in strait jackets because we are afraid to let go. I hear so many desperate prayers of people in and out of the faith. Esse quam videri. To be rather to Seem. Be the church. Do not just do church. We love the idea of holiness and intimate relationship with Christ but when it comes to letting go of the baggage we picked up along the way often we just don’t it. We can do it, but we refuse. We find some excuse, and often we can pick scriptures out of context to support our thought. I have heard homosexuals try and justify their lifestyles with scripture. This is what I’m talking about when I say we must live biblically orthodox theological lives. Look through the prism of Scripture, Biblical tradition, experience, of the Body of Christ, and the tradition of the church and see if it the scripture you are standing on to support your unwillingness to submit to the Will of His Spirit is really saying what you think it says. I promise you God is consistent in every way. He will not call you where you are not needed. He will not ask you to do something just because. Everything about God has a purpose; that includes His will for you. Let God remove the dragon scales from your body. If there is something standing in your way, move it. If you can’t move it pray it away. If it’s a spouse then you pray for God to change the spouse, but in the meantime you live for the kingdom. If it is a boyfriend or girlfriend and he or she is hindering you from Christ, drop him or her like a hot potato. The last thing you want to do is get involved with someone who drags you kicking and screaming out of the kingdom after God brought you kicking and screaming into it. If it is a job, God can handle that too. Nothing is too big that God cannot handle it, but I can tell you this. To seem holy rather than being holy is not holiness. You are living a lie, and do not call yourself a Christian for you are living in willful transgression against the known will of God, if we want to be the church. Seeming is not being. Wearing a mask will burn us out of the kingdom fast.