How Jesus Ministered

1. He prepared by growing in spiritual strength, wisdom and favor with God and men.
   Luke 3-4
2. He pursued the broken, calling them to worship.
   John 4
3. He released power to heal the sick.
   Luke 6:19, 8:46

This is the second part of our look at Ministering Like Jesus. In part one we saw how Jesus prepared for His ministry by growing in stature that produced spiritual strength, wisdom and favor/grace. In this part we will look at the other two components of ministering like Jesus: pursuing the broken and releasing power.

A Call to Worship

John 4 is a powerful example of how Jesus, “full of grace”, pursued the broken. It is a familiar story, but let’s not let our familiarity obscure the power of passionate pursuit. Jesus comes to a place where his culture says he should not be. According to many it was a place of religious perversion of the worst kind. A place where the inhabitants said they worshiped God but didn’t do it in the official Temple in Jerusalem. They weren’t welcome in the Temple because they had refused to leave Babylon to return home and rebuild it. Generations later when they did return they were labeled half-breeds and allowed to settle in undesirable lands. They were the Samaritans. It’s important to note when reading John 4 that the great divide between Jews and Samaritans was over how and where they worshiped. Let’s pick the story up in verse 16 of John 4.

16 Jesus said to her,   “Go, call your husband, and come here.” 17 The woman answered him,   “I have no husband.”  Jesus said to her,   “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’;  18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” 19 The woman said to him,   “Sir, I perceive that   you are   a prophet.  20 Our fathers worshiped on   this mountain, but you say that   in Jerusalem is   the place where people ought to worship.” 

21 Jesus said to her,   “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.  22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.  23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.  24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 

25 The woman said to him,   “I know that   Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes,   he will tell us all things.” 26 Jesus said to her,   “I who speak to you am he.”  John 4:16-26

One of the great things in this passage is how Jesus pursues a social outcast, speaking tenderly but forcefully in her area of greatest brokenness. This woman had made some poor choices to be sure. But she was also a member of a culture very influenced by sexual sin. The history of sexual sin goes back to the vile rape of Dinah by a Canaanite Prince named Shechem in Genesis 34. This story ends in the brutal murder of Shechem and the entire city at the hands of Levi and Simeon. The most important city in the area of Samaria was now called Shechem. Imagine having your city founded on the memory of brutal rape and murder?

Jesus comes to this place to pursue a woman caught in the spiritual heritage of her culture. She was perhaps both a slave and a prisoner (see index) to the sin of her region. She most definitely saw no way out. But Jesus offered her a way. Living water. The power of the Holy Spirit to pour forth from her in a river that would never run dry. How was she to get this living water? Drink of course. Interestingly enough the conversation turns immediately to the subject of worship. This is no coincidence.

Worship is how we drink of the living water offered by Jesus. Not just any worship. Worship that is both spiritual and truthful. Worship that empowers and gives life. Worship that is not confined to geographic are cultural constraints. Worship that destroys both the personal and cultural sin of a people. The invitation to worship in spirit and truth transforms a whole town. I can imagine that soon Samaria was known for their passionate worship!

If we are to minister like Jesus we need to pursue the broken at their point of real brokenness, offering them a drink of life giving water in the place of worship. It is this primary ministry of Jesus we must take most seriously. Our place in creation is a divine call to worship. The goal of creation is worship. In fact all created beings worship God in song. Isaiah saw all of heaven worshipping before the throne crying, “Holy, Holy, Holy”. John sees the same thing in Revelation 5 where all created things are singing before the Throne and the Lamb that was slain.

We must become passionate worshippers before we can call others to worship. Demonstration is always better than lecture! If you are not yet a passionate worshipper, or maybe don’t even know what that means, fear not. Your Heavenly Father has more of a desire to give you a heart of worship that you know. Receive the invitation to drink of living water, let it wash and fill you. Then practice the rhythm of worship by returning to drink your fill every day. You might just see your heart and your city transformed by the power of worshipping in Spirt and Truth.

Worshipping with all our hearts in spirit and truth is very intimate. When we are intimate with God we are drawn into His heart. We see and feel what He sees and feels. Our hearts are broken and eyes are opened. We become one with the Godhead as we are pulled into the center of the Trinity. From that place of intimacy we are bestowed authority. Not because we “earned it” but because only those who carry the heart of the Father can wield His power. Only sons and daughters devoted to a life of intimacy can truly speak for their Dad.

There is a direct correlation between intimacy and authority. The more intimate you are with someone the more authority you have to speak in their stead things you’re certain they believe. If you are the United States Secretary of State, your job is to accurately communicate and establish America’s foreign policy abroad. The Secretary of State is second only to the President in foreign policy influence. Why? Because they have the same level of intimate knowledge of foreign policy as the President. In addition, American government is set up to grant authority abroad to those intimately connected to the highest office in the land.

In the same way we are crafted to grow in authority the nearer we draw to the Father. As our hearts become enamored with the beauty of His Majesty, we increase in the authority we carry. This is because worship accesses heavens resources. And Heaven is the ultimate authority on earth. Your will be done on earth as it is already in heaven remember? So God’s will is that the earth look like heaven. To make that happen He’s chosen to appoint some ambassadors to earth, armed with God’s foreign policy and bestowed with the authority from heaven to make it happen.

Releasing Power

If worship accesses heavens resources then prayer releases them. It’s one thing to have authority and it’s quite another to make something happen. Anyone with children of any age has run into this problem! Jesus is the preeminent model for us because he not only carried the authority of heaven into the earth, but he also released that authority in power to save, heal and deliver all who called on his name.

And he came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. And those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And all the crowd sought to touch him, for power came out from him and healed them all.
Luke 6:17-19

And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and though she had spent all her living on physicians, she could not be healed by anyone. She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, and immediately her discharge of blood ceased. And Jesus said, “Who was it that touched me?” When all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the crowds surround you and are pressing in on you!” But Jesus said, “Someone touched me, for I perceive that power has gone out from me.” And when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling, and falling down before him declared in the presence of all the people why she had touched him, and how she had been immediately healed. And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace.”
Luke 8:43-48

These two stories show us that Jesus released the power of the Holy Spirit to bring healing to those who sought to touch Jesus. When his power and authority touched the faith and hunger of the people healing happened. Freedom happened. The Kingdom of Heaven shattering the constraints of this world happened. All it took was a touch from Jesus. What do we do now if we want to touch a Jesus that is no longer walking the earth Incarnate? We pray.

In Revelation 5 we see a glimpse of what’s happening in heaven as we speak. The prayers of the children of God rise as a sweet aroma to the place where Jesus himself is seated. They are mingled with the angelic worship, intimacy and authority call for a release of power. The display of power we see called forth through prayer at the end of the age is quite shocking indeed! But until that day, prayer continues to release power from heaven over this present darkness.

To minister like Jesus is the submit to the Father’s preparation as he builds in us mature spiritual strength, clothed in wisdom and carried with charisma so that we might call the broken world to intimate worship and release the healing power of prayer over out families, cities and nations.

How Jesus Ministered

1. He prepared by growing in spiritual strength, wisdom and favor with God and men.
   Luke 3-4
2. He pursued the broken, calling them to worship.
   John 4
3. He released power to heal the sick.
   Luke 6:19, 8:46

If we want to minister to people in the power and authority we’ve been given as sons and daughters of the King, we need to set the plumb-line on The Man who showed us the way to life. Many times we have a tendency to operate solely in a ministry model developed from the cultural and religious norms surrounding us. While operating within a cultural context for personal ministry is not in itself bad, in fact it’s a vital part of effective ministry, Jesus must be our preeminent ministry model. First we need to see and live in what He said is available to us. Then we are better able bind together in our specific communities a ministry context that ushers in the life and power of the Living God.

We begin the 2 part study on Ministering Like Jesus by looking at how Jesus was prepared for ministry. Part 2 will explore aspects of Worship and Prayer that are vital to moving in the Authority and Power of Heaven.

Ministry Preparation

40 And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him…. 52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man. Luke 2:40, 52 KVJ

It is an interesting feature of the young life of Jesus that we hear basically nothing about him until he begins his ministry at around 30. The only passages that refer to his childhood are the stories of his birth, his teaching in the Temple at age 12 and this curious passage above. The above verse describes 30 years of preparation for 3 years of ministry. We can only really guess as to what Jesus was doing for 30 years prior to being baptized in the River Jordan.

There are some helpful extra biblical sources to which we can turn to help fill in some details. Looking at the historic context of Torah observant Jewish boys uncovers some of what Jesus’ early years might have looked like. But ultimately it is only an educated guess. It is interesting, however, that the gospel writers don’t give us more details. I think perhaps this was by design. I submit that the Gospels give us everything we need to know. What if Jesus’ preparation for ministry consists entirely of the descriptions given in Luke 2:40, 52? Growth in stature that produces spiritual strength, wisdom and favor/grace.

Mature Spiritual Strength

Jesus’ life and ministry is the defining example of spiritual strength. He exhibited it in every situation and gave us a model to study and emulate. But where did He get it? Let’s look at Matthew 3.

13 Then Jesus came   from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him.  14 John would have prevented him, saying,   “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” 15 But Jesus answered him,   “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.“  Then he consented.  16 And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold,   the heavens were opened to him,   and he   saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him;  17 and behold,   a voice from heaven said,   “This is my beloved Son,   with whom I am well pleased.” 

This moment is vitally important to the life of Jesus. What is going on here? The word “stature” we saw earlier signifies maturity in age, physical height and metaphorically as coming into the fullness, or readiness as being fit for a thing. In the life of young Jewish men there were 3 main transitional ages. The first age comes at 12 when you became a man. The second came at 20 when you were now fit to serve in the military. Lastly, for those who progressed down the priestly path, your stature was complete at the age of 30 where upon you could enter the priesthood.

Luke 3:23 tells us that Jesus was about the age of 30 when he began his ministry. Why 30? He had grown to the fullness of “stature” and was now fit for the priesthood. How did one become priest? In the days of the 2nd Temple, according to Levitical law, the High Priesthood passed from Father to eldest son. To pass the priesthood from Father to Son a very important public event needed to take place. The son of the High priest need to do three things:

1. Perform his mikvah (ceremonial cleansing)
2. Be anointed with the oil strictly prepared for priestly anointing according to Ex. 30
3. Have the blessing of the Father pronounced over him in the hearing of all the people, signifying him as the firstborn son and thus rightful heir to the priesthood.

Let’s revisit Matthew 3. Jesus comes to John and says that to baptize him would “fulfill all righteousness”. It was the honor of a lifetime that John stood as Prophetic Proxy for God! Using his fatherly mantel he conducted the “ordination of Jesus” as High Priest according to the order of Melchezidch. Hear the words an angelic messenger prophesying about John the Baptist:

“He will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb. 16 And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, 17 and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.” Luke 1:17 – quoting Malachi 4:5-6

So John the Baptist wore his prophetic fatherly mantel and prepared the way for the Son of Man to be anointed to His perpetual priesthood. So as to fulfill all righteousness, the fathering spirit of Elijah presided over the ceremonial washing of Jesus. As he immersed in the Jordan River at the very spot the Israelites had crossed into Canaan some 1400 years earlier, the Holy Spirit descended upon him. Anointing oil is a symbol of the Holy Spirit. Jesus didn’t get the symbol, He got the REAL THING!

Lastly a booming voice from heaven declared, “You are my beloved son; in you I am well pleased.” It was now complete. Jesus, having grown in stature, made ready for the priestly anointing, received the gift of the Holy Spirit. He was now  mature and spiritually strong. He would need to add wisdom to that strength to sustain the intense temptation he was about to undergo.

Wisdom

1 And Jesus,   full of the Holy Spirit,   returned from the Jordan and was led   by the Spirit in the wilderness  2 for   forty days,   being tempted by the devil.   And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended,   he was hungry.  3 The devil said to him,   “If you are   the Son of God, command   this stone to become bread.” 4 And Jesus answered him,   “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.’” Luke 4:1-4

Jesus was now full of the Holy Spirit. And being filled he was led by the Spirit into the wilderness for the final stage of preparation: temptation. It’s one thing to have the anointing, it’s another thing to know how to use it. Temptation has a way of calling what’s in us out of us. And what came out of Jesus at the end of 40 days of incessant demonic attack was wisdom.

Biblical wisdom begins with a holy fear of God. A reverent and sober knowing that God is passionately serious about the path to life He has laid out for us. Biblical wisdom does not end with the fear of God. To the reverent fear we must add courage to stand on the narrow path to life, not being persuaded to “go to the left or the right.” This is called faith.

One of the most important features of wisdom is the ability to act in faith according to what heaven says brings life. Consider the famous passage about the wisdom of Solomon. When presented  with a difficult case involving two woman vying for a single child, Solomon appealed to an eternal value. “Cut the child in half” called forth the passionate desire of the real mother that her baby would live no matter the circumstance. Life is the highest value of heaven. Everything the Father does is for the purpose of bringing fullness of life to all creation. Solomon saw the truth of heaven and courageously applied it to the earthly situation. Wisdom!

When tempted by the devil, Jesus’ wisdom knew truth from a lie. Wisdom that nourished him by the Word of God not fleshly appetites. His wisdom used heavenly power of the Holy Spirit to reject the temporal, earthly power of the demonic. Wisdom which sealed the enemies fate. This man Jesus was prepared to inaugurate the Kingdom of God on earth. He was mature, spiritually strong and now wise. But on earth you need charisma to win friends and influence people.

Favor

Jesus Begins His Ministry

14 And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and a report about him went out through all the surrounding country. 15 And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all.

Jesus Rejected at Nazareth

16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. 17 And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,

18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

because he has anointed me

to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives

and recovering of sight to the blind,

to set at liberty those who are oppressed,

19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

20 And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21 And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” 22 And all spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth. And they said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?” Luke 4:14-22

In many bible translations there is a heading inserted that says something about Jesus beginning his ministry. I personally like the heading and the location of the heading. The first thing we find out as Jesus begins his ministry is he is full of the “power of the Spirit”. Being of age (stature) he is now ready to begin his heavenly calling to be a priest on the order of Melchezidch. So he goes straight to his hometown and into the synagogue where he reads the selected daily reading from Isaiah 61.

Much can be said about the prophetic significance of Isaiah 61. But for our purposes we will note that the passage basically sums up the preparation Jesus had been going though for 30 years. When Jesus says “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” he was confirming publicly that the appointed time had come. He was fully grown in “stature”. Moreover, the Holy Spirit has just anointed him with power and he was here now wisely declaring exactly what he would accomplish. The crowning achievement to be the demonstration of the Lord’s favor.

The initial response to Jesus’ reading was profound marvel at the “gracious” words Jesus spoke. That word “gracious” is the same word used in Luke 2:40 where Jesus is described as having the “grace of God upon him”. The word in Greek is charis and it’s the root of our English word charisma. Jesus was of age, anointed, wise and charismatic! Quite the ministry combo. The only thing he was lacking according to our modern day culture was dashing good looks!

This final piece of having the grace, favor, the charisma of God is very important. It’s important because people respond to charisma. The Father designed it this way. This might be unsettling for some. After all, many charismatic leaders, both secular and religious, have lead people into very dark and destructive places. This is one of the powerful shadow sides of charisma. Just because you have charisma does not mean you’ll use it to bring life. God does bestow it, but we must steward it. Jesus is a beautiful example of a perfect steward of the charis his Father gave him.

In a later section on the Gifts of the Holy Spirit we will discuss at length this important aspect of ministry as it is often misunderstood, misused or tragically under utilized. But for Jesus, it was a vital, daily part of his ministry. People we constantly remarking about his charisma when they said things like, “And they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes.” Mark 1:22. 

Jesus was powerfully beautiful. People were attracted to him with such intensity. It was almost magnetic. And just like a magnet, it’s the same power of attraction that draws you in that pushes you away. Some gave up their lives to love him. Others sought to take his life because they hated him. But charisma is an attribute of God we are allowed to mirror in a world desperate for something beautiful and powerful. We can steward it for life or death, but the beautiful, magnetic power of charis should not be ignored in our pursuit of ministering like Jesus. We must steward all the gifts of God in our invitation to the world to worship the Living God.

Read Part 2

A few years ago I felt the Lord encourage me with this phrase, “Prepare for extravagance.”  OK Lord I’m listening! I was not sure what constituted extravagance for the Almighty, but I knew I wanted it. I was looking forward to my 6 figure job, my new car and some sweet heavenly visions. Whatever He wanted to give.

What I actually got was 3 children, a birthing into my calling and relationships that have blessed me beyond measure. I truly have been living in extravagance these past 3 years.

And yet…

… I’m anxious…

… I’m fearful…

… I’m frustrated …

I’m not living daily in the extravagant peace and rest I know is the norm for the Kingdom of God. So where is my extravagance here Father?

Maybe I’m not prepared?

Today after a run I asked Papa this question: “What does it mean to prepare?” I’ve asked that question a few times before and never really understood it. But today the Holy Spirit gave me insight to my own heart that I want to share with you.

I began to think about the word pre and pare. Pre means to do before, in advance, or ontologically prior (I had to use my philosophy training someplace). Pre is about existing or doing “before”.

Pare is an Middle English term that means to “to trim off an outside, excess, or irregular part” or  ”to diminish or reduce by or as if by paring”. source

This makes some intuitive sense. The outside linebacker prepares for a new NFL season by trimming off excess fat or weight that slows them down. Businesses prepare for tough economic times by shedding excess. And this must be done prior to the season or recession or you’ll get caught in some very tough situations.

For me, if I am to “prepare for extravagance” I must submit to a process of having excess or irregular parts of my heart or character diminished or reduced. Hmmmmm… this passive waiting for awesomeness just got really hard!

Sometimes we miss the simplicity of heavenly instructions because of the awesomeness of blessing. Yes Father wants to lavish extravagance upon us. So in order to build in His children the intimacy and character necessary to hold the blessings He must pare our hearts and minds. We live with thoughts and beliefs about God and each other that hold back our hearts from fully living into Heavens available freedom. Paring these thoughts brings freedom.

But this paring needs to be done prior to the blessings. Ever see the show “Lottery Ruined My Life”? That show is a case study in how financial windfalls ruin people who have not prepared for wealth. Blessings without character to administrate them often results in destruction. 

This new year brings amazing hope and opportunity because our Father is poised to pour out such abundance. But before this happens we must say yes, agree, submit to the powerful healing and reforming breath of the Living God to pare away anything in us that is irregular. And regular is Heavens regular, not earths. God might still pour out blessings on unprepared people. He’s done that for thousands of years. But also, for thousands of years one generation receives God’s abundance only to have it end in destruction because their hearts were not fully pre-pared. Jesus tells some stories with this theme in Matthew 24.

So if you are living in a season of paring please don’t give up! Your Heavenly Father who is storing up blessings for you (Psalm 31:19) is strengthening you in this day. There might be battle ahead. There might be parts of your heart or relationships that need to change. You might be asked to abandon irregular theologies that don’t sync with Heaven’s normal. You might even have to lay down that assanige view you’ve held of yourself for 30 years because the Holy Spirit says to your dead, trapped heart “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.” (Isa. 61:1)

But don’t forget, all this paring also has a pre. This is all happening because now is God’s before. And soon, the prepared Bride will meet her Groom pure and spotless on the day of his arrival. Soon, the prepared heart will fully rest in the Shalom of Heaven. Soon, the prepared church will steward the power of Heaven because they have the Heart of the Father. Soon, the prepared Christ will return and “The kingdom of the world [will] become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.” (Rev. 11:15)

So for 2012 I resolve to be prepared. And I can only prepare if I submit to the Holy Spirit’s paring before His extravagance overwhelms me. Will you prepare for extravagance?

You see for the ancient Hebrews, a name was not a title but a destiny. And a destiny was given by God and communicated through the Father and Mother in a name. You can see countless examples of this in both Old and New Testaments. Adam is given a name which literally means “Earth, or Red” but which also communicates the idea of “Humanity”. The first man is named “Humanity”. Interesting.

Or what about when Jesus gave Simon his new name in Matthew 16. That moment births his destiny as the “rock” of the church. When the Angel Gabriel appears to Mary he tells her the name of her child. The name is Emmanuel which is “God with us”. But Yeshua is not address as Emmanuel in the text. Emmanuel was not an everyday title but an articulation of his destiny. Even His every day title, the name Yeshuah (Jesus), is a destiny. It means “Salvation”.

So let’s take a quick look at the names given in Genesis 5. They are a long list of who begat who and are situated in-between some important stories about the beginning of all things. So we must ask ourselves: if names are destinies, what is the purpose of this list? Is it just a list for history’s sake or is it a story that, once the destines are put together, communicates something grand?

I will soon write a post so you can learn how to search out the meaning of biblical names using the online tool Blue Letter Bible. For now please explore the slideshow below to learn the meanings of the names in Genesis 5 and what their collective destines add up to.

It was in accordance with the commands of Moses to teach these words (Shema) to your children, reciting them when you rise and when you lay down.

In addition, there was a command in the Talmud tractate Yevamot that the final step for a Gentile to convert to Judaism was to be immersed in a Mikvah and to be “born again” as a Jew. Now, as a band new Jewish baby, the hope was that the first words spoken upon rising from death to life would be Shema. This process would continue each morning and night as you confess the Truth of God and your need for Him by reciting the Shema. Thus, some Rabbinic traditions teach that each morning and evening you are being “born again” as you confess the truth of the Shema.

Messiah uses this phrase “Born again” to a Pharisee who is a ruler in Israel. The Pharisee responds with a question: “Can you enter again your mothers womb?” Wait a moment. Is he so foolish to think that this wise sage Jesus whom he sought out in the dark of night, honoring with the title Rabbi, thinks he must actually reenter his mother? Of course no! What then does he mean?

Think from a Hebrew prospective. Who is the Jewish “mother”? To be considered a Jew one must have been born of a Jewish mother. Many Orthodox Jews recognize matrilineal descent. Could the Pharisee be confused by Jesus, thinking he must again become a Jew? Let’s pursue this line of thinking.

Perhaps Jesus was referring to the term “born again” and extending it from converting to Judaism and saying the Shema to the Kingdom of God. Permit me a little Platonic dialogue liberty as I try and flesh out what this moment might have meant:

Jesus is the Master of taking traditional Mosaic or Rabbinic understanding and completing it. He actualy came to fulfill, or to act out in front of them, the full LAW of God. Could Jesus here be completing the understanding of the Shema and Mikvah for this Pharisee by introducing him to the throughly spiritual Kingdom of Heaven? Does this have practical application for followers of Yeshua today?

Many people come to Jesus like the Pharisee: “We know you are God and all, and we are honestly seeking to know you, but we are still counting on our own goodness and earthly abilities to make us righteous.” We come to Jesus in the flesh seeking a fleshly answer to fleshly problems. But we come very genuine! Jesus, being the gracious Shepherd that He is, reminds us that we can not experience the Kingdom of God by, or through, the flesh.

Church of Messiah Jesus, we must submit our fleshly minds and hearts to the King who longs to show us His glory. We can not continue to rationally ascend to a propositional truth in accordance with the enlightenment and think we will see God. What is one practical way we can submit to God in the new year?

Wake up every morning and recite the Shema. Say it again as you go to sleep. Why? Because when we confess Truth and let it wash us, we are reminding the flesh that “the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.” (Rom. 8:2) Shema is not an incantation that makes us Holy. It’s not a phrase that when whispered in secret calls down fire from heaven. It expresses a Truth given from God that has never, and will never change. And to this Truth we all must submit.

When we live a daily life of cultivating declarations of Messiah and His Father, we practice the rite of submission. When saying the Shema daily, we join with a chorus of millions through the ages, our LORD included, in confessing the Truth of God. We submit to a phrase and Truth not our own. We appropriate into our inner person a Truth beyond our own creation. Beyond our own flesh. Something from the Spirit! And we focus on our daily need to be re-born in areas of our heart and soul that are not submitted to God.

What if in this new year we committed to assume we are in need of daily growth and healing from the Master? What if we awoke each morning and spoke, in accordance with the practices of Messiah Jesus and the command of the Law of Moses, these simple words?

We find ourselves in the 21st century civilization with divided body of Christ. Denominations are numbered in the thousands in America alone. A quick look at the western church since the 15th century shows us a few important things. Namely the Protestant church was birthed in a doctrinal protest and the goal of the church has been to preserve and advance doctrine. Is it any wonder that is has divided so many times? Our faith is built on doctrine, a fancy word for “ideas”. Good ideas… God ideas. But ideas none the less.

Was the first 1st century church built on uniform doctrine? Did the Apostles rally around each other, change the world and die gruesome deaths to justify ideas? No. The Apostolic church gathered together because they got a revelation from heaven that the Messiah was alive. Their church structure was built on the foundation of the Apostles and the Prophets. Heaven was their highest goal. And family and covenant community was what gathered them together. Could the Apostolic church again be a reality on earth?

The first time I heard someone speaking in tongues was at a friends house when I was 15. Their parents were in the living room and we were not allowed in. I heard them from the kitchen and was freaked out. I asked around for an explantion, none was to be found. Next time was 6 years later at an “Intercessory Ram Charge for the Nation of Israel.” It was a midweek service at the local Charasmatic mega-church. It was basically a huge game of Red Rover where people blew strange curly trumpets that could only play 2 notes and ran from one side of the chair-less auditorium to the other while shouting “charrrrrrrge” or mumbling nonsensical syllables at linguistic hyperspeed. I was appalled! (As a side note: I really want to host one of those now! Anyone interested?)

I left that place convinced that their disorderly worship was straight from El Diablo. We Christians must have ORDER to our worship! After all, Paul says we MUST HAVE ORDER. But what I didn’t see is that I was employing Pauls words as a pretext for my unrecognized subtext of fear. You see, most people who have not experienced the manifestations of the spiritual gifts are afraid of them. This certainly was true for me. And so much subsequent religious reasoning finds its biblical roots in fear and in 1 Corinthians 14:40. The orderly reasoning usually goes something like this,

1- According to Paul order must be had in church.

2- You can’t have church without order.

3- Order means controlled, repeatable, predictable dissemination of eternal Truth.

4- Therefore, Before we can have church we need to know how the clear, repeatable, predictable dissemination of eternal Truth is going to happen.

This is were business plans enter church. Before you launch a business you better know how to achieve the expected results. You better set the order before you begin or else your brilliant plans will not be realized. But is this what Paul is suggesting in 1 Corinthians? Let’s remember context.

The injunction to “do all things in order” is at the end of a lengthly explanation of what “all things” means. Some of the “all things” Paul is referring to are the 9 Spiritual Gifts he lists and then explains. Somehow we hear “order” but not “all things”. There emerges a problem if we start with “order” and not “all things”.

What Paul is actually saying in 1 Corinthians 12-14 is that when we gather together and supernatural experiences begin to flow, and the gifts given by the Holy Spirit are powerfully moving in our community, we need to set them in order. And the order he gives is mediated by love and motivated by the Fathers desire to build up the body as a whole. So if you experience the outpouring of the Holy Spirits renewing presence and His power becomes manifest, know that when He comes He does not bring chaos.

But know also that the Holy Spirit is not predictable or controllable. He is wild and free and forever committed to filling us with love and peace and joy and healing. So let’s not set the “order” the Holy Spirit has to follow before we can feel comfortable allowing Him to move. What if we started from a place of hunger for His Presence and then learned to trust that what ever He comes to do, it will not only change us but change the world around us?

Before we set anything in “order” we need the wild wind of heaven blowing among us. Can we learn to let the Holy Spirit do what ever He wants regardless of our fears? Can we yield our unknowing to the All Knowing and trust His Goodness at all times? There is an order to the order. It’s an ancient one. First God, then man. First the Holy Spirit moving unrestrained among us, then the orderly building up of the body. When that happens we follow the order of the Kingdom and can say with Paul “that (we) are not lacking in any spiritual gift, as (we) wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 8 who will sustain (us) to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Cor. 1:7-8

The wisdom of this age is very different from the wisdom imparted from Heaven. Paul makes it clear to the church in Corinth that he did not come to teach them worldly wisdom with lofty speech. Rather, in demonstration and power of the Holy Spirit he came to impart to them the wisdom of God. For indeed we have been given the very same mind of Jesus.

The wisdom of this age looks only at circumstance, sees all things one dimensionally, and strives to control every environment.

The wisdom of God envisions eternity, sees in the three dimensions of heaven and cherishes freedom.

The systems we have been born into are limited and doomed to pass away. But the mystery of Heaven has been made known to us if we are willing to receive spiritual revelation. For our flesh can not see it. But the mind of Christ can!

The final festival of the fall season is the most joyous. All the harvests have been gathered, the sins have been atoned for, all flesh is gathered together again in the Holy City to cry out to the LORD for Living Water. Sukkot is a 7 day street party that remembers when the LORD tabernacled with the Herbrews in the Sinai desert so many years ago.

But more than a fun party, it is an amazingly profound and clear type and shadow of what Messiah Jesus has for us today. He has His Living Water, the Holy Spirit, available to pour out of us into the whole earth. He has Light and Fire to illuminate and purify all creation. He has an intimate, communal celerbration that invites us all to join together as one flesh in worship and adoration of the King. In short, God loves to party and has released the everlsting water to literally sweep us into His Eternal Presence.

“All who are thirsty let them come to me and drink!”

On the Day of Atonement, 2 goats were killed to cover over the sins of Israel for one year. The next year the same service was needed to cover over – atone – for the new sins. The ancient Hebrew definition of “atone” was “to cover over”. It is first used in Genesis when Noah “atones” his ark with pitch to make it waterproof.

Jesus was the Passover lamb that takes away the sins of the world for ever. (See John 1:29) But Messiah didn’t just cover over our sinfulness, He permanently removed it. It is interesting to see that the Messiah didn’t die on the Day of Atonement. Which, if you try and squeeze our tiny human reasoning into God’s perspective, might make more sense. But the Father gave His only Son as a Passover sacrifice, not as an “atoning” sacrifice. Why? Because Jesus caused the wrath of God to NEVER come upon the Sons and Daughters of God. He didn’t just cover us for a short time. The writer of Hebrews says that “it’s impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.”