A couple of years ago the Lord spoke to me about seven blind spots in the worldwide body of Christ.  Money is one of those blind spots for many believers. I saw a tweet by Mike Murdock recently that really challenged me.  It said "The More Important People Become To You...The More Important Prosperity Will Become To You." I have found this to be very true. The more money and overall wealth you have access to, the more practical benefit you can have in the earth to help people more efficiently and effectively. 


We need to be mindful of the ignorance about finances that most move in.  It is so bad that to many, the very mention of money from a minister or ministry brings a sickening feeling in the pit of their stomach. I would say that God wants you to be free enough to enjoy Himself and accordingly to enjoy the things He has created to be enjoyed. He's not against you having things, He's simply wanting Himself to remain in that number one slot in your heart is all. 

I've met a lot of people who simply have unchecked bitterness against God because they have been led to believe that "God will provide" and then when they don't have what they need, they somehow justify blaming God because again, "God will provide" was their claim of faith which ranks right up there with another favorite of mine, "God is in control".

The fact is that God is only in control of what we let Him be and the same is true with money. "God will provide" is a true statement, but by itself it is also an incomplete statement.  It would be better to say it this way... "God will provide thru a human being just as He has always done since the beginning of time".

When we eliminate humans out of the provision dynamic, we by default embrace ignorance and that is not of God.  

This leads to a somewhat related conversation about Faith.  Faith doesn't ignore evidence, it becomes new evidence. Don't blow past that too quickly...re-read that again... Faith doesn't ignore evidence, it becomes new evidence.  

Many believe Faith is God's answer for people who don't know anything. Its as if to suggest that Faith works best with ignorance. "The less you know, the more Faith you have" is where that leads to and that is error because if you follow that line of thinking all the way through it leads to making the Holy Spirit's ability to teach us irrelevant.  

In reality, look down the list of people in Hebrews 11... Able, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, etc.  These were not stupid people who had no idea what was going on.  In fact, they were all people who knew God well and their Faith ADDED TO their knowledge and gave them the courage to do what needed to be done. 

So it is today that Faith does not give you permission to remain ignorant.  Instead it will install courage to take action and not hide behind cliche statements like "God is in Control" or "God will provide".  Ultimately, God is the source but there will always be a human in that picture when we talk about money.  When we talk about money, there will always be a human in the mix meaning that while God will provide, He will only be able to provide for you as others hear and obey His leading as well.

What I have seen play out over and over again is when people pray for money not realizing that prayer is not the seed for money. If it was, every intercessor in the earth would be rich. No, in fact, WISDOM is the seed for wealth and wealth is not limited to money but it includes it within itself. To gain more wealth the Godly, biblical way, you will need to increase your wisdom..and here's where it gets rough for folks because God uses CORRECTION to bring Wisdom into your life. 

When you pray for wisdom, God runs you into someone who knows more than you do. The problem with most people is their pride doesnt let them believe someone else may know something that they don't so when they pray, God brings someone in their path and they don't recognize them as one being sent from God so they dismiss them inadvertently missing God's attempt to answer their prayer.

I see this with people trying to make extra money from home or those trying to lose weight. They pray for help, then God runs them into me or someone like me who knows what they don't yet know, we offer to help them and then they find some excuse to not apply what we suggest. In their minds it's all justified of course but in the end they are only delaying God's attempt to bless them by remaining unteachable. It is no different with God's wisdom in any area of your life. 

More later...

M-  

Dealing with this tragic event from a Christian perspective is one of the most challenging things I have done in a while. 

Part of what makes The Ferguson situation so complicated is the large number of factors all coming together at the same time within it. I liken it to a light prism of sorts where any number of colors all emanate out from it but at the root core to be truly understood you have to ignore the various color streams and study the prism itself. 


The way my brain works, I tend to be able to easily separate out various issues into their own streams or categories so as to better solve them individually, thus ultimately solving the big picture issues(s), at least when that's possible to do. In keeping with my light streams and prism analogy, we can see many of these streams of light shooting off the core prism in Ferguson. Streams would include things like racial bias from police, media coverage (good or bad), the justice system itself, etc. All of these various factors or "streams" are valid in and of themselves and all of them are worthy of a larger scale conversation about how to improve and better each of them but none of those are the core prism.

Outside of a few retweets on twitter,I will let my contemporaries ramble on about the politics of those various streams and situations. What I will use my blog for today is to expose and bring to the forefront the root cause, real problem and true "prism" that is responsible for all of the other "streams".  That core prism is absolutely the fallen, animalistic, fleshly nature of mankind.

As Christians, most of us enjoy at least some level of peace and/or self control in our lives. As time passes, we tend to forget that we are just as human as the next guy or gal. It's so easy to sit back and wag our finger at the screen judging everyone against ourselves. We see fellow humans before us completely unrestrained and free of influence by the Holy Spirit and we somehow believe that we would behave differently if we were in their shoes. We have swallowed such an anti-Grace doctrine of earning salvation through self denial that our Christianity looks more like Buddhism and the result is feeling like we have earned the right to look down our nose at looters, freeloaders and trouble makers. Thus we hide behind the labels like "Conservative" or "Republican" to point at, criticize and belittle others as if we are somehow incapable of doing the exact same thing ourselves.

I have three sons and I would like to think I walk closely enough with the Holy Spirit that I would not completely lose it if one of them got shot by a police officer but the truth be told, without that relationship with Jesus, I would be just as bad as the crazed protesters in Ferguson and in fact, I would probably be even worse. Now, that in no way justifies the breaking of the law or immoral or unethical behaviours but it does bring some very much needed clarity for many of you readers.

Much of the pain and unrest from those not close to the family (especially protesters) stems from misinformation. The media has done a masterful job at setting the wheels in motion for the average person to believe very wrong information. As Christians we need to understand that while the information that causes their frustration and pain is in many ways drummed up and hypersentualized, their feelings are still their feelings and thus very real to them.  While we should try to share correct information, we need to be sensitive to the pain of others and I would suggest a good starting posture is to be a bit more concerned about the feelings of those wounded than in trying to convince them that we are right. I know it's a fine line too.. we want to reach out in love without condoning the mass hysteria fueled by a false media narrative. the Holy Spirit will anoint and give the right words at the right time if we simply move in obedience and love for others. 

This world is broken, we are all born into sin and we all possess a fallen, animalistic, sinful nature that if left unchecked would reduce us to a wild animal, slave to our own selfish impulses and desires. Next time you hear about Ferguson or the lawless action of those there, remember that they are not their sin. That's not who they really are. Our job as Christians is to love them while using wisdom to help them see that for themselves. We stand against the lawless actions while praying for and standing with the sincere people.

It is impossible for anyone to watch the media and come away with an honest, unbiased opinion about the shooting of Michael Brown. If you are truly interested in real honesty including actual proven facts, please suspend what you think you know now and instead read the evidence for yourself. Not opinions but actual grand jury facts presented in court. 

Remember, Jesus doesn't come to take sides, He comes to take over. Accordingly, when we as Christians get involved in this situation, we will be slow to take a side as well instead favoring to protect ALL hearts moving forward. If we help people heal, Jesus will come behind and change hearts.

Mark 

Several decades back Bob Dylan released the song "The Times, They Are a Changing" and it has since become a cultural quote that is embraced by those trying to get the point across that the way something used to be is not how it is any longer. 

Change is always rough on us as humans because our fallen minds draw peace, comfort and security from things we find familiar.  One goal of the Christian walk should be to get so entirely used to being led by the Holy Spirit that we begin to feel comfortable with that leading. Easier said than done for most folks to be sure. 

I have been involved with several churches in one form or another over the years and like many of you I have seen some very beautiful things..and some not so pretty stuff as well.  The constant in all of it has been change.  Most recently, about a year ago a new church leader in our area approached me about helping him out with his effort. After meeting with him and getting a very clear direction and feeling for what he wanted help with, I agreed to help out.  Over the last year there I met a lot of wonderful new people and similar to times past, saw a lot of beautiful things.. and some not so pretty things. The constant through it all was and still remains change. 

As you discover changes in and around your life, you will usually adjust things accordingly. Thus, radical change to produce radical results requires radical discovery of what has changed in or around you. In my case with this recent church, they began to change the relationship dynamic a little bit more and more as time went on. A little bit at first but climaxing with them asking me to be silent about certain doctrines that I held to be truths but the church didn't agree with.  To me these were small things that would be classified more as opinions instead of actual Christian doctrine. Certainly nothing worthy of parting ways over but it became more and more important to them and they started to make that very known.

Long story short, they made my continued involvement contingent upon me remaining silent about any doctrine that the church didn't agree with. This was to include even personal postings here on my blog or on my personal facebook profile. Any visible or spoken communication to others, even those who were directly involved in our personal ministry, in effect asking me to not speak or minister as I felt I was led by the Holy Spirit, all because they felt it could possibly be seen by others as a position the church didn't support.  It forced me into a position where I had no other alternative but to move on.

I share this on here because my blog is read by many Pastors, Apostles, Prophets and leaders in the body of Christ from the USA and around the world. I want to speak candidly to you leaders directly for a moment here....

When you pray for God to bring people around you to help you advance your ministries, he very rarely brings someone that agrees with you entirely. In fact, in most cases God will hide something you need in people you don't really like that much.  It is well within God's nature to allow the wheat to grow up with the chaff to help you exercise your discernment. That teenager who wears all those tattoos you don't like is likely anointed by God to head up your video department.  That woman who wears the ugly smelling perfume is likely anointed by God to head up your hospitality. That guy you see as disrespectful because he never sits and listens when you preach..he is probably anointed to lead your ushers or security. 

We must stop making human judgements based on what we see in our flesh. God is going to use a lot of different types and kinds of people to bless and elevate you.  Even homosexuals... by the time we get done wagging our finger at those people, we miss that if we would communicate that they are absolutely accepted while we stand completely against their lifestyle choices.. God could use us to build relationships and ultimately see them set free. instead our flesh would feel better if they just kept silent about their sin.. or better yet just left entirely so we didn't have to mess with them. 

Let me openly rebuke many of you modern leaders for preaching so hard that we need to love the lost yet once they get saved you do nothing but try to get them to fit into your interpretation of God's law. I'm not saying we don't have standards, I AM saying the the Holy Spirit does the changing in a person's heart.. and if you want the person to change, love them into it. When people get really, really honest, they KNOW they are in sin. They don't need you to constantly remind them. Stop asking people to repeatedly repent of sin and instead remind them of their true destiny and how you believe in them! 

I remember in my teens my life was a complete mess. Rebellion and Lust were two of many things that had wrecked me. A father in the Faith to me at the time took me in and allowed me to run the control board at a Christian radio station where he had a show. Had anyone known what my life was like, they would have certainly protested if not boycotted... but this man was more concerned about loving me into a place of change instead of trying to force fit me into what he believed to be true. Today I oversee SEVEN Christian radio stations reaching tens of thousands all over the world each and every month.  You tell me, was he wise to not force a behaviour change and instead build real relationship with me?  You better believe it.

All of us can learn from what I just shared. Let us never fail to preach the truth and never compromise our morals or messages... HOWEVER, while we do that, we need to remember we are entrusted with Jesus' wife, His personal bride. If God brings someone to you, they are not expendable. You are called to love them and as much as wisdom will allow, give them access to be able to enjoy a relationship with you.  You are not called to reject them because they don't believe like you believe.

Last point today...  a couple years back I had a big blow up with a guy on the phone over the direction of one of our stations. He was a self identified "Bishop and Apostle" and he was bent on telling me how wrong I was. He caught me when I was tired, and we were in a giving shortfall to boot.  I let his foolishness trigger my own and it was ugly. A couple hours later I was preaching on our network and God led me into talking about forgiving people. In my mind AS I PREACHED I was telling God no, not him. I'll forgive everyone but him, he was an idiot, he was this, he was that, etc. Finally as God's presence fell hard, I broke before God and released my bitterness. I began to pray aloud for God to bless him and I was broken with God's heart for the man.  At the same instant this happened I got a donation notification. I checked it and it was from that same man that i had just forgiven. He gave a $3000 donation and in the notes of the donation field he said 5 words I will never forget. He said "I'm sorry, I was wrong".

Who has God sent into your life to bless you? Who have you inadvertently chased off in the name of them not agreeing with you or worst yet, not "submitting to your vision"?  Then you will go back to god and beg Him more to help you when He has likely already sent help, you just didn't like the package it came in so you marked it return to sender.

God, give us all YOUR eyes and ears. let YOUR understanding be ours... in Jesus name!

More soon,


Mark