Look, I’m no Moses. I have neither seen the burning bush in the wilderness nor climbed down from the mountain after seeing God face-to-face. I have, however, heard God speak–many times, in fact.
I have seen people roll their eyes, or raise their brows when during conversation I say something like, “…and the Lord told me…” I suspect that many Christians have never actually heard the Lord speak. The reason, however, is not that He hasn’t spoken to them–He has spoken and they simply do not know how to hear Him.
Yesterday, I posed this question on Facebook: If you had to describe your church in 3 words what would you say?
I decided to answer the question too. I thought for a minute and then completely cheated and used two hyphenated words for a grand total of 5 words. I said:
My church: Spirit-filled, Christ-centered, and family.
I was trying to remember if I had ever heard the word “prophetic” preached from the pulpit during my first fews years of being a believer. Looking back, I don’t think I had.
I attended a church, as young Christian, that was a bit charismatic (if there is such a thing). Some people spoke in tongues and some people had “words from the Lord.” But no one was walking around calling themselves prophets or their “words from the Lord” prophetic.
Fast forward 8 years and I was attending a Bible church where the pastor admitted from the pulpit that he sorta, kinda, maybe believed in prophecy, but that this congregation would never participate in such things.
Fast forward another few years and I found myself in a wholly prophetic church, where it was not only preached but practiced– A church where hearing from God was the norm, not the other way around.
Having spent a few years in a prophetic community and being a part of one currently, the idea of prophecy has been demystified for me. God has so clearly brought instruction, clarity, and understanding to the idea of prophecy.
I understand (sorta) why people find that word to be so scary. Prophecy.
There is no other word in scripture I can think of that makes people–all people–quite so uncomfortable. It doesn’t matter what your denomination might be, church background, theology, if you’re male or female–almost everyone gets squirmy when the word “prophecy” is thrown around.
It sounds like the end times. Armageddon. Fortune telling. Mysticism. The Unknown.
I’ve felt a pull to write about this topic. To offer the same sort of demystification that was offered to me. So, starting with tomorrow’s post, I’m going to try as best I can in a blog post, to help bring light to a seemingly scary topic for many Christians.
Meaning, I’d like to hear your questions first. Your questions will help shape tomorrow’s post. So, have at it! Ask me anything. Here’s a few questions to get you thinking…
What do you know or have experienced in terms of the prophetic? What would you like to know? Do you find the topic a bit unsettling?
And for fun…what do YOU think is the scariest word in the Bible?
So, you may have noticed that Friday Findings have been a little absent the last few weeks. I apologize, but hopefully now that I have my act together you’ll have lots to read.
There’s so much good stuff to share. I bursting at the seams…not really, but I’m excited. Here we go:
Censoring God. My friend Moe of Beta Christian nails it. If you happen to frequent Christian blogs or you are a Christian blogger, read this!
Is Jesus the Only Way? In his usual brilliant way, Frank Viola, sets out to answer a series of question from skeptics in regards to Christianity. The portion I enjoyed best asks if Jesus is the only way? This is powerful and yet practical stuff. Necessary tools for any believer. Here’s part one to start, as well: There is a God.
College. Forget It. From the blog Christ and Pop Culture is a succinct and well-written blog post after my own heart called, Is College Worth the Money?
Pinterest and Christians. If you are a woman, chances are Pinterest has made you feel bad about yourself at some point. And yet, we keep going back. Nikki Weatherford wrote a great post called The Pinterest Guide to the Christian Life. So good.
I Love Barack Obama. Regardless of your politics (because this has absolutely nothing to do with politics) you need to read this post from Jamal Jivanjee, Why I Love Barack Hussein Obama (An Open Letter to the Saints in America).If you read nothing else, please read this. It exemplifies the Father’s love and could be one of my favorite examples of God’s heart…ever.
A Call for Privacy. From Sarah Markley over at a Deeper Story. She writes: “But we often don’t value people who are wise enough to keep some of their lives private.” This post is filled with truth and addresses our over-sharing, Instagram-loving, Facebook-updating culture.
Jesus Healed Me! Lastly, a video, which I rarely do (but am going to try and do more often actually). I watched this the other night and got choked up. We make it so complicated and it’s not. It’s so simple. God. Jesus. He loves us. He is awesome.
Did you watch the video? I mean, seriously, does it get any better? What did you discover this week that is share-worthy? Let’s hear it!
My husband and I have long discussed whether or not Jesus was a funny man. You know, not funny “ha ha” but other kinds of funny. Was he jovial, a jokster, a goof?
Did He like to play pranks on His disciples? Is that really what He was doing when He said John was His fave?
My husband imagines Jesus sitting around a fire late at night, shootin’ the breeze with His disciples. In Jonathan’s imagination, there had to have been some jokes cracked and some gas passed. I mean, there were dudes. Jesus had to laugh at farts and fart jokes because, well, almost all men do, right?
Just last night we were talking about this–Jesus being funny or not–and a few minutes later, I decided to hop over and visit Ragamuffin Soul for some reason. Lo and behold, I saw an image that some would call sacrilegious and others would call downright awesome. A picture like this only comes along once. I saw it and I smiled… Continue reading Breakdancing Jesus
I heard a pastor tell the story once of his brief, albeit, passionate addiction to…video games. That’s right. Everyday, around lunch time, he would escape from his church office and find his way to the local mall.
There, while munching on greasy fries, he would empty his pockets of quarters into his favorite arcade game. He would sometimes spend hours shooting down digital planes before realizing that his lunch hour was long over.
No one knew what this young pastor was off doing, but he felt a strange and powerful pull to keep showing up and dopping in quarters.
After a few weeks of this, the Lord told him that this practice had become an unwelcome distraction and thus, a sin. It sounds silly. I mean, video games, really? But, this hobby had become a bit of an idol and the pastor knew it.
Before becoming a Christian, I thought of God as a kind of grand puppeteer. I mean, I didn’t tend to think He was an evil puppet master, but I certainly didn’t think God was intimate, personal, or present.
I imagined Him sitting on His throne in the clouds, judging us from above, interjecting His hand when He decided to do so, but also withdrawing His presence when He willed.
He was a sort of detached heavenly being and Jesus was just a really nice guy who tried to make things better.
I remember the day well. My friend came to me emotionally distraught. She was dating a Godly, cool, funny guy whom she loved very much. She wanted to marry him. She was certain he was the one. But, there was one problem….
…his parents.
This young man’s parents were living in sin. Behind closed doors, they had one of the most abusive, dysfunctional, and broken marriages one could imagine. To their church community, however, they had it all together. They smiled and nodded. Showed up every Sunday. Volunteered for everything. No one around them knew the truth…
…that is except for my sweet friend, who found all of this to be too much when her boyfriend’s parents were asked to teach a marriage class at church. My friend broke.
How could she allow this? How did no one else know? Why was there no one shepherding them?
I felt on edge all week, but didn’t figure this was anything to worry about. I’d also not been feeling well physically, having been racked with migraines and pain throughout my body.
So, come last Friday when I woke up feeling miserable, I was determined to not let the pain or stress win. I fought against the day. Have you ever felt like that? Where you feel as if you are simply spending your physical energy to resist? I was resisting pain, stress, a burdened heart, loneliness, anger, fatigue. I was fighting against an invisible and yet very real enemy.
And in my fight, I decided that I would win which meant doing something that usually makes me feel better: exercising. So I headed to the gym with my kids in tow, for an hour long kick box class. I felt good. I felt strong. I finished well.
But, as we headed to the car, I realized that something wasn’t right. I was suddenly dizzy and breathless. I reached down and touched my chest and felt mildly shocked to find that my heart was racing, not beating, but racing. I had been out of class for some time. My heart shouldn’t have been racing, but that was just the beginning.Continue reading So, I Almost Died…Sorta
You may already know that I have a bit of an aversion to Christian-ese and labels. I find that all too often, us Christians are so quick to throw around buzz-words and discuss the next hot-button issue, meanwhile abandoning the issues that really need discussing.
Yesterday, I asked some of my fellow Rejects on Facebook and Twitter to share with me a few of the buzz-words that they too are sick of hearing (as a side note, if you aren’t following me on Facebook or Twitter, what’s up with that? No worries, let’s just kiss and make up).
You all had some precious gems to add to the list of over-used Christian terms, things like:
Look, I’m no Moses. I have neither seen the burning bush in the wilderness nor climbed down from the mountain after seeing God face-to-face. I have, however, heard God speak–many times, in fact.
