Happy Pentecost!

I celebrated Shavuot tonight and it was so beautiful. In the days of Moses God wrote out His heart by the giving of the Torah to His people, which was a prophetic act and the first display of Shavuot. That same God has the same heart today. He poured out His Spirit at Pentecost in order that we might receive the fulness of God’s heart and have it be sealed as an act of completion unto us, His people. He literally was giving Himself to us, the Church. This time around however, God did not write his law on stone tablets, but on our hearts. Pentecost in the New Testament is the prophetic completion of the Feast of Weeks (Shavuot) seen in the Old Testament.

God always has and always will have the desire to give the fulness of His heart to His people, that they might know Him entirely. He desires to give Himself and specifically His heart to His people. This is the main theme of Pentecost. This is quite different to the more debated topic of speaking in tongues, which is just a simple fruit of  being filled with the Spirit, it was not and is not the point of the Pentecost. Tongues are debatably of less importance among the gifts, therefore they seem to float to the surface. To understand Pentecost we must understand its Old Testament origins, which are so often neglected and forgotten by today’s Church. God is fantastic and has greatness burning on His heart, greatness that He desires to freely give to His people as He did in days of old. There is nothing stopping you from being filled with the Spirit but yourself. All you have to do is want Him.

A couple of years ago the Spirit gave me a very specific vision. In the vision I was sitting on the dirty concrete ground with my back against the wall. It was dim lighting and I was covered with dirt. My face was unrecognizable. I’m assuming that I was homeless, but I don’t know that for sure. In front of me there were people passing by, back and forth. They were speaking a language that I could not understand. There was a women who was clearly malnourished and near death. She approached me and sat next to me. She said nothing. I said nothing. I held her head in my left arm. She had light brown hair. There was a great sense of chaos all around us. Yelling and shouting and angry voices. I’m not sure where I was, but it was very crowded with people.

As far as how I felt, there was a supernatural peace; a sense of belonging. Its like I didn’t want to be anywhere else in the world. I longed for that moment. My heart was full and overflowing with the liquid love of the Father. 

I don’t know what this is, or when it is going to play out, but I praise God for revealing this to me, as it is a great encouragement to my calling. I’ve been meaning to write this out for a long time, and I am finally doing it. Praise God.

The Gospel

Initially I was annoyed with God. After all these years of following Him, He decides to spend over a month ministering the Gospel message to me. Seriously? Of all the revelations and knowledge and mysteries to choose from, and all He wanted to do is talk to me about the Gospel. Eventually I just let Him do His thing. This is what He said:

If you know that the Gospel is simple, why have you complicated it? You have complicated the life out of it and all thats left is a dead pile of fruitless theologies and vacant terms. The Gospel is not merely a message as you have imagined it, but rather a person. Jesus, that is. No, I’m not talking about all of the hundreds of times that you have heard it said “Jesus died for your sins”. If this whole thing was about Jesus dying because you need saving and He loves you that would be enough, but there is more you need to know. There is more to the story, beloved. Jesus did not die alone. You died with Him— this is the very source of your freedom. This is what makes the Gospel a living and breathing reality. You were co-crucified with Christ. If you dilute the Gospel to solely an issue of forgiveness, you are just going down that same endless road. You will have the mentality of an orphan. You will find that abstaining from sin and experiencing my fulness will be nearly impossible. You will labor and you will fight. Instead, understand that your flesh died 2,000 years ago. It ceases to exist. The Gospel is the complete fulness of life for those who believe. You were co-risen with me, a new creation. You see the Gospel is about identity. Walk in your identity and you will live in your destiny. Don’t be deceived anymore, dear child. I am God and love is my name, can’t you see? I have made it so simple for you, because I care. My yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Go to the well of your salvation. Run to the well of your salvation, and fall in. 

Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm. For love is as strong as death, its jealousy as enduring as the grave. Love flashes like fire, the brightest kind of flame. Many waters cannot quench love, nor can rivers drown it. If a man tried to buy love with all his wealth, his offer would be utterly scorned.
Song of Solomon 8:6-7

Stop Being Against People

I remember the days when I was so against so many different teachers and pastors within the Body of Christ. I was so annoyed with so many different beliefs and practices and it only made me more frustrated, not more Christ like. I can confidently say now that I am not against any minister of the Gospel, simply because Christ is not against them. You see, Jesus is for even those who are against Him. This is the nature of Christ that I have consciously chosen to adopt. I have no time to waste on wrongfully motivated correction. Yes, there is a place for correction in the Body of Christ, a great need even. But this should never manifest itself as being against someone. There is a more mature, more biblical, and more Christ-centered way of dealing with correction. This is what I would love to see the Body of Christ start to participate in, in general.