Running With Horseman

"And if you have run with foot soldiers and they have tired you out, then how can you compete with horses? If you fall down in a land of peace, how will you do in the thicket of the Jordan?" - Jer 12:5

Nearly a year ago I felt that the Lord was urging me to "tighten up" and to get more focused, so that I might "run" at a quicker pace with Him without spinning out of control. The Lord used the above listed verse to give me instruction and perspective on where we were (in 2011) and where we were going. Honestly that message was both alarming and exciting. It was alarming to me because I began to understand where I was in regard to the stewardship of my time, finances, and other resources. In other words I was barely making it as I ran with the "foot soldiers". At the same time, I was excited that the Lord wanted to include me as He did something that would require a faster pace – the pace of the horses.

So maybe you are wondering what we changed or are currently changing to make the transition from "foot soldiers" to "horses"? Well, first, it was our paradigm. I'll give an example of what I mean. Let's think about the way we spend our time. Most Americans (including myself) schedule our time into a few basic categories: 1) work , 2) other commitments, and 3) free time. Categories one and two are the things that every responsible person prioritizes. We prioritize work so that we can eat and pay our bills, and our other commitments such as leading a bible study or going to parent-teach conferences because someone else is affected by our level of commitment. Category three is where we all get into trouble. Usually category three of our schedules remain completely UN-scheduled. We are unintentional with that 20-40 hours of our week and thus end up squandering it on things like: deciding what to do with our spare time, random web-surfing, watching TV, "hanging-out", etc.

The shift that our family is trying to make is to begin redeeming that third category of time. Because we have a family vision to grow deeper in God and give Him glory through specific activities, we can plan even our "down time" so that it's not wasted time, but effective time spent pursuing one of our goals. Additionally, when we have our time planned, it forces us to say "no" to things that we should say "no" to and say "yes" to the things that we should be doing. Now does this mean that we never rest? No it doesn't. Does it mean that we never watch a movie or have fun? No it doesn't. Actually, what happens is that we have time where we can engage in those activities as well as have a definition of what it means to "relax" of "have fun". The same principle can be applied to our finances, our relationships, and various other areas of our lifestyle.

Beloved, the Lord has need of His people in this hour. I believe that we are living in a time where the Lord desires to take His people deeper more quickly than ever before so that He can use us like never before. Many will be commissioned to "go"; to minister more and more effectively to others, while others may find more required of them in a different area. All of those that He finds faithful will be given an opportunity to steward more in their respective areas of skill and gifting. Just as opportunities to serve the Kingdom will increase, so will distractions. The challenge to the people of God in this hour will be to stay on the right course: to run the fast pace of the horseman and not lose sight of the goal – Jesus and His Kingdom. I pray that the Lord will give you clarity to condition yourself so that you can run with Him as you never have! - JJ

Discipline Is Good

"…but He disciplines us for our good, that we may share His holiness." (Heb 12:10)

The above passage is becoming one very dear to my heart. For me it is the banner passage of the Lord's kind intention towards me while in the midst of difficulty. Though I am a young man (and plan to remain one for a very long time), I have tasted the bitterness of trial a few times. In some seasons the trial was financial, in others the physical well-being of my family was affected, still in others I was merely granted the ability to see an area of sin in my life. Regardless of the struggles that I have faced in each of these seasons, each (in hindsight) was crucial to my development in God and is thus very dear to me.

Yes, you did read the above statement correctly, I said that my trials are dear to me. Looking back at each of my these, I can now see how much closer I grew to God as I pushed hard after Him to understand His ways, as I repented of my own sinful ways, and as I cried out for Him to deliver me. Those seasons are now so dear to me because my constant pre-occupation was Him and Him alone. Thus one of the reasons that the Lord disciplines us is so that we will draw nearer to Him.

"Is that it? Does God afflict us for His own pleasure?", you might ask. Is our God a bit sadistic, causing us to suffer from time to time just so that He can get us to talk to Him? Well in a word, YES. He is jealous for us, to have us as his own children, to spend time with us and us with Him, and He'll do what He must to achieve this end. However He's not manipulative, He's a rewarder of those that seek Him. He's got a promised inheritance for us that is spoken of throughout the scriptures. In this passage it's described as the sharing of His holiness. Isn't it amazing that the supreme being over all of the universe wants to share His perfection or His holiness with us!? He wants us to be able to take part in His holy kingdom - His unending resource of power, authority, and good pleasure. He wants to make us like Him in our internal motivations and in our actions – that's a holy and wonderful thing to partake of.

The very next verse in Hebrews 12 says that discipline "yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who are trained by it". I again think back to those seasons of trial and I remember how good it felt when the breakthrough came. However, the breakthrough didn't involve a drastic change in external circumstance, it was the drastic change in my heart. It was like the Holy Spirit living in me picked a fight with my sin and said "Hey, you can't take up space in Jeremy's heart anymore, I want all of him." At this point the battle ensued. I became stressed, scared, upset, and offended. I took my stand against Satan, accused God, and tried to get Him to change His mind. But to no avail. It was when I turned inward, humbled myself, and allowed MY mind to be changed that peace came. Peace was the effect of turning and aligning my heart with His righteousness. It was no fun to oppose God's ways, and I certainly had no chance of winning. But once I surrendered and let Him have His way, a wonderful and profound peace flooded my soul – the peaceful fruit of righteousness.

Beloved, the trials of life take many forms but all of them are opportunities for us to submit to our Father in heaven. For many of us, a paradigm shift has to occur. Instead of blaming God or someone else for our circumstances, and trying to wriggle our way out of the situation, we must turn and face the God of heaven. We have to get to know Him as the Father who actively and appropriately Fathers us and sometimes does so through loving discipline. We have to get to the place where we can say as David did, (paraphrase) "The judgments of the Lord are true; altogether righteous, and more desirable than gold!". - JJ

The Knowledge of God (Pt. 2)

The phrase "knowledge of God" is found in both the old and the new testaments and is clearly a critical issue in the heart of God for the people of God. For instance, Hosea tells us that the Lord takes issue with a people who do not have or seek the knowledge of God.

Hear the word of the LORD, O children of Israel, for the LORD has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land. There is no faithfulness or steadfast love, and no knowledge of God in the land; (Hos 4:1)

Later in the book, the Lord tells Israel that He'd rather that they know and love him then bring him the mandated temple sacrifices and offerings.

For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. (Hos 6:6)

In the New Testament, we find that the way to knowing God is through Jesus. This is clear from many verses, however these are my favorites:

For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. (2Cor 4:6)

If you had known me (Jesus), you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him. (Jhn 14:7)

The real point I want to make is this: Not only is it true that we SHOULD know God. But it is true that we CAN know God. The attitude that is common in our churches is that we want our pastors to know God for us, while excluding ourselves from pursuing the knowledge of the holy. For some, the issue may be a practical one, "How do I pursue the knowledge of God?" you may be asking. Proverbs 2:1-5 is a great place to start. The last thing I'm going to do is list the heart attitudes needed to obtain the knowledge of God as outlined in this passage.

1. If you receive my words (Pro 2:1) – To receive His word is first to read it, then to respond rightly by setting our heart to obey it. It's a commitment to 100% obedience that ushers us deeper into the things of God. It's important to remember that seeking to obey though we are immature is different than persisting in sin and ignoring the Holy Spirit.
2. If you will… treasure my commands within you (Pro 2:1) – To treasure His commands is to treat them with great care. We hold them in our hearts and our minds by meditating on them. Doing this takes time, which means we must make time to pursue God through the Word.
3. …Incline your heart to wisdom and apply your heart to understanding (Pro 2:2) – This speaks of having a heart that is humble, teachable, and correctable. We must open ourselves up to receiving the wisdom and understanding from God that so often offends us. We have to become aware that His ways and ours (at least our un-renewed ways that we default to) usually are not in agreement and therefore we choose not to resist Him.
4. If you cry out for discernment and lift your voice for understanding (Pro 2:3) – We must pray that the Lord teach us his ways. Paul prayed that the spirit of wisdom and revelation would reveal the knowledge of God to him in Ephesians 1:17-19.
5. If you seek her as silver and search for her as hidden treasures (Pro 2:4) – To seek something as hidden treasure means that we're willing to expend our time, energy, and money in an extravagant way to obtain the treasure. It means that we'll pay any price to have the knowledge of our Holy God and persevere through any obstacle.

For more on the knowledge of God:

    Click here for my notes.

    Click here for Mike Bickle's notes.

The Knowledge of God

We live in a time known by many as the "information age". This is a time of rapid growth and discovery in nearly every area of technology and science. This age has given us some pretty cool stuff. For instance, if all your phone can do is send and receive phone calls then you're outdated by about 10 years! Your computer is more informative than 1000 volumes of encyclopedias, your television, your phone, and your fax machine all put together, AND you can carry it under your arm anywhere you want. All of this knowledge being right at our fingertips is pretty handy, virtually anything that you can wonder about, you can find out about. Yet there's one thing that can't be uploaded to your smartphone – the Knowledge of God.

With so much knowledge readily available, our minds are full of thoughts about the newest LCD TV, what our current bank balance is, who won the Cardinals game last night, and what our wife might be cooking for dinner. I've found that I can think about all of these things plus one or two others while also trying to engage God in prayer, worship, and in the Word. To be honest, it's a little frustrating to constantly fight the battle for my attention as I set myself to labor in a prayer room for hours each week. Not only is this accessible knowledge a distraction, but very little of it provokes my heart and mind to have thoughts worthy of having toward a holy God.

"Oh the depths of the riches of both the wisdom and the knowledge of God…!" This is what Paul says in Romans 11:33. The knowledge of God isn't just knowledge about God, it's the knowledge obtained from knowing Him in a deep and meaningful way. The knowledge of God is the truth about God that impacts our hearts and changes the way that we think, feel, and interact with others. To know God is to love Him, even when we haven't seen Him. To know God is to have eternal life. To know God is to think rightly about Him, and moreover, to acknowledge that we hardly know Him at all.

When Moses climbed Sinai in Exodus 33 to intercede for the Israelites who had worshipped a golden cow, he cried out to the Lord saying "…please show me your ways…". In other words he was saying to God "Though we've seen your pillars of cloud and fire, and though you've parted the Red Sea, and given us the 10 Commandments, we still don't really know YOU(!)" Later in Exodus 34, from the same place of desire, Moses says "show me your glory(!)". Moses was desperate to know God in a real way. He knew that knowing God would keep him (and the people) out of sin, propel them into fascination, and energize them to be holy as He is holy.

Clearly to live with the same desperation to know God as Moses did (and to know God as Moses knew Him), we must search God out as Moses did. We can no longer be content with our limited, shallow understanding of the bible and of God himself. We can't continue to allow the knowledge of men that comes through our computers, TV's, and cellphones to satisfy our souls and profane our thought life. We have to shut some of it (or maybe all of it) down and cry out for understanding and insight into the things of God so that we might know Him!

Beloved, I'm convinced that the knowledge of God, or rather the lack thereof, is the primary issue for the church in this time. It's time to recognize our boredom, our lack of the knowledge of Him, and our need for Him; and from that place seek Him wholeheartedly. - JJ

ONETHING 2011