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Raising the Bar

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1 Thessalonians 1:6-9 And you [set yourselves to] become imitators of us and [through us] of the Lord Himself, for you welcomed our message in [spite of] much persecution, with joy [inspired] by the Holy Spirit; 7 So that you [thus] became a pattern to all the believers (those who adhere to, trust in, and rely on Christ Jesus) in Macedonia and Achaia (most of Greece). 8 For not only has the Word concerning and from the Lord resounded forth from you unmistakably in Macedonia and Achaia, but everywhere the report has gone forth of your faith in God [of your leaning of your whole personality on Him in complete trust and confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness]. So we [find that we] never need to tell people anything [further about it].9 For they themselves volunteer testimony concerning us, telling what an entrance we had among you, and how you turned to God from [your] idols to serve a God Who is alive and true and genuine,…

The distance between Macedonia, Achaia and Thessalonica was approximately 190 miles or the equivalent of the entire length of the country of Greece. A modern day equivalent of that distance would be equal to traveling from here to Wilmington (193 miles) or from here to Raleigh (183 miles). Does anyone in either city know of your faith? Are you impacting the Christians living in those cities? Are other pastors and Christians sending their church members to watch you in action? To learn how to follow Jesus; live like Jesus; live like a disciple? Let that sink in deep. Listen to what Paul says about their faith: everywhere the report has gone forth of your faith in God [of your leaning of your whole personality on Him in complete trust and confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness]. They were leaning their entire personalities in complete trust and confidence in God, His Son Jesus, and the testimonies of the Apostles. They had set themselves to become imitators of Jesus and the Apostles. If they were imitators of all the above they were not simply reciting information, nor were they excelling at attending house church. No this means they were putting into practice what they taught and practiced. This means they were preaching, teaching, winning the lost, going to the nations, serving the poor, serving the church, baptizing others, making disciples, casting out demons, raising the dead, speaking in unknown tongues, and overflowing in the Holy Spirit. Those are the things Jesus and the disciples did. That was their normal. What has happened in modern Christianity that sees this as abnormal? How have we become so impotent, and watered down? It’s time to raise the bar once again!

At the 19th Summer Olympics in Mexico City in 1968 an American named Dick Fosbury set an Olympic record in the High Jump and brought home a gold medal. No one had ever jumped 7’4.25″ before! What was so unusual about Fosbury’s feat was that he did the high jump backwards. It looked awkward and strange. It was called “The Fosbury Flop.” But it worked! Branching out in a new high jump technique is one thing. Getting it accepted by others is another matter. Fosbury remarked,“I was told over and over again that I would never be successful, that I was not going to be competitive and the technique was simply not going to work. All I could do was shrug and say,’we’ll just have to see,’” AND PEOPLE DID SEE! Since then, nearly all world-class high jumpers now use his technique. To attain his goals, he changed his approach to high jumping, and he didn’t allow others’ comments to make him feel like he would not achieve his conviction. Is that the modern Christians’ problem? Have you been letting others determine your altitude?

Wow! This whole thing is astounding and humbling all at the same time. (I just blew my own mind!)

Manifest Destiny

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Titus 1:3 And [now] in His own appointed time He has made manifest (made known) His Word and revealed it as His message through the preaching entrusted to me by command of God our Savior;…

When Christianity first began the followers of Jesus were mostly of Jewish descent yet there were those, numbered among them, who were Gentiles. Those Gentiles, or Nations, had no grid of reference for the teachings of Old Testament Scripture; no traditions, or holidays they could fall back on as reference points. When they came together to be taught it wasn’t to gather more information. They came together in order to be instructed in how to practice being a follower of Jesus. The Word of God had multiple meanings to them. The Book was more than just a book. It was a mirror of Jesus – the Living Word of God. It wasn’t simply a gateway to information but was a literal portal into the very worlds the heroes of the faith had experienced. What has happened to Christians that has reduced the Book to a collection of children’s stories?

Revelation 19:10 states: the testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of all prophecy…Prophecy was a world of words manifesting into a living, physical reality. The Testimony of Jesus, and of the Word of God, manifesting – being made a physical reality. When you take the time to consider that if you truly embraced the Testimony of Jesus – by faith, or anyone who had embraced His Testimony – you became a manifestation of that Testimony. You were born-again of the Spirit. Your spirit man came to life and you began to have the capacity for spiritual things. On the day you believed, and trusted, you heard God. I would dare say that on that day your spiritual senses were activated. Things that you thought you might have imagined were actual spiritual realities you slowly learned to dismiss.

In 1845 a newspaper editor by the name of John L. O’Sullivan coined the term manifest destiny describing the collective belief of many Americans. According to historian William Earl Weeks, there were three basic tenets behind the concept: The assumption of the unique moral virtue of the United States. The assertion of its mission to redeem the world by the spread of republican government and more generally the “American way of life”. And lastly, faith in the nation’s divinely ordained destiny to succeed in this mission. This belief led to the westward expansion of the United States into unclaimed territories. O’Sullivan believed that Providence had given the United States a mission to spread republican democracy (“the great experiment of liberty”). No where in the mind of any American was the thought of dedicating schools, teachers, and books to “learn” the meaning of this term. It would have seemed preposterous to any citizen or settler venturing out into the unknown, mysterious, untamed wilderness of anything west of the Appalachians or Alleghenies – to research the etymology of the phrase, or take a course on it in school. Absolutely not! For them it was a term that embodied what they believed and many would give their lives for. It was every individual Americans’ God ordained destiny to push forth into a manifestation of what they believed, and valued.

Followers of Jesus are called, and destined, to push forth into spiritual wildernesses to stake their claim on the land as their inheritance. The Word of God, and the promises of God, become their manifest destiny until it manifests as reality and they are living in and on that land. Once there was a time in the history of Christianity when the belief in Calvinism was so entrenched in the minds of believers that led them to assume some were destined to Heaven and others to Hell. Because of this belief, few if any practiced sharing the Gospel with others, and the taking of that Gospel to other nations was totally unheard of. Yet in the early 1700’s some Moravians became filled with the Spirit and were so moved that they sold themselves into slavery in order to finance their way to the mission field. It took another 100 years for this belief to spread in which Christians began to press forth into their inheritance and manifest destiny. The same could be said of being filled with the Spirit, Worship, the Gifts of the Spirit – tongues, healing, miracles, and discerning of demons. I can remember when raising the dead was unheard of and Bible believing Christians scoffed at the idea. Yet, he we are living in a time where we are encountering those who have not only raised one person from the dead but several. His Living Word pulsates all around you – if you believe that creation came into existence simply through His spoken Word and not a cosmic accident – waiting for someone to access the riches of it’s unimaginable Glory.

New York newspaper editor Horace Greeley once wrote: Washington [D.C.] is not a place to live in. The rents are high, the food is bad, the dust is disgusting and the morals are deplorable. Go West, young man, go West and grow up with the country. Some One greater than Horace Greeley, the Living Word, stated: Therefore GO! Are you a classroom Christian theorist or a Manifest Destiny Explorer and Pioneer? Are you growing up with the Word – into the Manifestation of the Word?

Last Days Harvest

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Lev. 23:40 commands: You shall rejoice before the Lord your God.  One of the names for Sukkot is Z’man Simchateinu (The Season of Our Joy).  In fact, the word JOY appears several times in connection with Sukkot. Dt. 16:13-15 Be joyful at your Feast—you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levites, the aliens, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns.…For the Lord your God will bless you in all your harvest and in all the work of your hands, and your joy will be complete. Sukkot is known as a harvest festival, and that is why it is referred to as the Feast of Ingathering. Ex. 23:16 Celebrate the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in your crops from the field.” The joy of this holiday is characterized by music, song and dancing. Even today, Jewish people gather near the Western (Wailing) Wall to dance, sing and rejoice before the Lord. People fill the synagogues and streets while singing and dancing with tremendous joy until early in the morning.

You may be tempted to say, Robert, we are not farmers and there is no harvest to gather. So, why should we be rejoicing and celebrating? The answer lies in the fact that the Feasts and Festivals are actually prophetic symbols pointing to far greater realities – their substance is Christ – the shadows, and symbols of the good things to come. Colossians 2:16-17 states: So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, 17 which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ. NKJV And Hebrews 8:4-5 states: For if He were on earth, He would not be a priest, since there are priests who offer the gifts according to the law; 5 who serve the copy and shadow of the heavenly things, as Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to make the tabernacle. For He said, “See that you make all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.” NKJV And Hebrews 10:1 states: For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect. NKJV

The Feast of Sukkot, or Booths is a shadow, copy, or symbol of a culmination of the Spiritual Harvest of Souls. In Matthew 13:24-30 Jesus tells a parable which illustrates the significance of the harvest symbolism: Another parable He put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; 25 but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. 26 But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. 27 So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ 28 He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’ 29 But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.” ’ ” NKJV

Sukkot is a symbol of the Last Days Harvest of Souls: Acts 2:14-21 Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say.15 These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! 16 No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: 17 “‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. 18 Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. 19 I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. 20 The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. 21 And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ NIV

The Feast of Sukkot, or Booths is a shadow, copy, or symbol of other good things to come. Why would and should there be rejoicing, dancing, feasting and celebration during this time and what does all the celebrating symbolize? Luke 15:20-27,31 “And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. 21 And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. 23 And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; 24 for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ And they began to be merry. 25 “Now his older son was in the field. And as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 So he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant.27 And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and because he has received him safe and sound, your father has killed the fatted calf.’ NKJV

Luke 15:31 concludes by making the most profound statement: “And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours. 32 It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found.’ ” NKJV

We are celebrating our brothers and sisters who were once dead spiritually but have come to life again. We are dancing and feasting because what was lost has now been found! Now that’s a reason to rejoice!! Are you gathering “wheat” for the Father’s Barn? Are you a laborer in His Harvest? Are you playing your part in raising the dead? Are you a part of God’s Holy Spirit Search and Rescue Team – finding what was lost?