It has been a long time since I have sat down at my computer to write a blog. Life got away on me and certain disciplines were let go for the sake of survival. With the Lord's help I am now attempting to claim back those disciplines. As any writer will tell you, what they write is more for themselves than for their readers. I need this blog.
We are in the final hours of this world as we know it and my ongoing concern is our spiritual preparation. Are we closer to Jesus today than at any point in our life? I am seeing a lot of things going on to distract the followers of Jesus so we are not getting the spiritual nourishment that we need in these times. We are being forced into battles that are not important. We are wasting energy in the wrong areas. The enemy has distracted us with fake battles so we are not seeing what is really coming.
Part of our problem in the Church is our professionalism. For some reason we have always sought recognition from the world. We are looking for them to tell us that we are authentic and important. Yet, after our best efforts, we are facing a world that is becoming more hostile than ever and the words that make my skin crawl as those we hear from Church leadership: "We have to be relevant to our society."
No we don't.
How can we expect a world lost in darkness to understand our relevance when we are in direct opposition to what they want? We are not here to fight against them, but to fight for them. We fight for them by representing Jesus Christ, by speaking the truth and by interceding for them. If we try to professionalize the warriors of this battle, we are taking the battle from where the Lord is to where the world is, and we cannot fight at the level of the world.
Over the next few days I want us to consider what we read in 1 Corinthians 2. Today, consider this:
When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I didn’t come preaching God’s secrets to you like I was an expert in speech or wisdom. (v. 1)
Jesus Christ did not create clergy in the Body. He set up trainers to help us grow into the fullness of Jesus but he did not set up anyone to mediate for us. Jesus is our mediator. We did not set up a group of professionals who would present the revelation of Jesus through teh wisdom of this world. He set up a new nation, the royal priesthood, which is comprised of all believers.
According to 1 Corinthians 12 Jesus set up the Church as a body, with every member possessing the gifts he determined to give us, so that we could function spiritually together. He wants to be glorified through us and that isn't going to happen if we are preaching the wisdom of this world. He uses the foolish things of this world (that's you and me) to confound the wise. But the Church rejects the annointed of God in order to lift up the professionals for acceptability.
Some would argue that Paul was an educated man. That is true. I am not saying that Jesus does not use the learned, the intelligent, the wise but also realize that Paul set aside everything he had been, considered it foolishness and became educated in the Spirit. Our goal is not acceptability in the world but usefulness to our Lord.
You do not need to be an expert to be used by Jesus. You do not need a head full of knowledge. You are not eliminated from ministry because of your lack of ability. All Jesus requires from you is your love, trust, obedience and availability.
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