Church, Speak Up and Speak Out!

"...Every cultural issue facing the United States of America is addressed in the Bible and offers the direction and counsel of God."

Rom. 1:21~ For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 28 Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, He gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. 

Paul’s words to the people in Rome are poignant for today in America. Note that Paul says they KNEW God. This nation KNEW God, as a nation, as a people, as a culture. But most have become futile in mind and darkened in heart so that their world view, decisions, and life contain so much of ‘what ought not to be done’.

I have been ministering on this topic here at Crossfire for several weeks. I’m addressing the hot topics of our culture…education, court decisions, sexuality, national debt, immigration, Islamic intrusion, media bias, freedom of speech, political correctness and others. I am doing so from a Biblical worldview. A recent survey by a prominent social researcher in America (George Barna) discussed the results of pastoral leadership surveys revealing that almost 100% of pastors surveyed agreed that every cultural issue facing the United States of America is addressed in the Bible and offers the direction and counsel of God.  However, he also revealed that less than 10% of pastors surveyed are willing to publicly address these issues from the pulpit!!!(George Barna on American Family Radio 9.18.14).

We live in a nation that has become futile in thinking and darkened in the heart.  While we certainly have shining lights of the Kingdom of God shimmering amidst the darkness emitted from individual believers, ministries and churches, the nation and culture provide a large dark background to those lights. So…yes...this is bad news and really not news to those in the body of Christ who are deeply engaged by His Spirit. 

I believe we have entered a time of declaring apostolic clarity in this nation, clarity for the Kingdom of God amidst a culture of corruption. We have entered a time when leaders in the church must stand and respond to the prophetic call of the shofar to bring forth the Kingdom in this nation, not a theocracy, but a kingdomocracy, a worldview that is big and long term unto restoration of God’s intentions and purposes for the USA.  A kingdom mind toward the return of the King to a powerful, purposeful church and nation. Theologians talk about revival. I’m talking about a revolution…a revolution of thinking and worldview. 

This will not happen as long as the church, especially leadership, refuses to clarify the Kingdom compared to the corrupted culture. The church is called to be clarifiers not pacifiers, occupiers not observers. Without a vision the people perish, and the nation along with them! As leaders step up, the church will step up!

I will continue posting on this subject offering insight, hope and Kingdom keys to see this through. Stay tuned for more!

A Prohetic Word Regarding Worship In the Body of Christ

Today I am posting a prophetic word given two weeks ago by one of the prophetic voices in our church. This particular word lines up with words that was given to us late in 2013 and where the Holy Spirit is leading those who will follow.  The word late last year increased our ministry emphasis on praise and worship this year. I feel like the Lord is drawing us into a higher and deeper level of engaging Him in praise and worship. Jesus said that God is Spirit and ‘His worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth’. (John 4:24) I believe this has prophetic application beyond our local church.  As you let this scripture and the word below saturate your very being the Holy Spirit will bring revelation into your life.

"First, I heard the Spirit speaking about psychological and emotional healing as opposed to only physical healing: There is hurt in the soul that needs healing, and God wants to heal that at Crossfire as much as the physical pain. When God speaks of healing happening in Crossfire, He's referencing to healing in the soul and the body.

Next, I discerned in the Spirit something similar to a word I had at Crossfire a few weeks ago about separating our needs from God. The Spirit showed me that it would be wrong to always approach corporate worship through the filter of our pain and need for healing. It's good to lay down our needs before God, but that is not meant to be a constant, conscientious action. It's important to address our hurt and needs sometimes by meditating on them in corporate worship, but it's also important to be able to worship God without frequent thoughts about specific healing needs that we have. 

I heard the Spirit say that part of pursuing Him is about giving him focus without regards to our needs, and this requires trust that He knows our needs and has plans to meet them. When a corporate body pursues God in worship without regard to individual needs, but only with regard to whom and what God is, they can receive revelations about His splendor. By putting away personal healing needs and focusing on God, we view Him objectively, but if we pursue God in the scope of our needs too much, we won't have an appreciation that He is bigger than our needs. In other words, God exists apart from our needs for Him, and we won't appreciate how big He is or His desire to help us without acknowledging that fact. Seeing God through the scope of our needs too often can cause us to perceive that He is smaller than He is.

I also heard the Spirit say that by pursing Him strictly to honor who and what He is, rather than who and what He is in relation to our needs, we will be opening the doors in our hearts wider to receive His Spirit. This will lead to closer, more powerful encounters with His spirit and His healing, because we'll be submitting ourselves to His character, ready to respond to His initiative, rather than having a plan to see a specific outcome based upon our hurts. God is who He is regardless of what we need from Him, and when we pursue Him without an emphasis on our needs, we allow Him to reveal His heart toward us so that we are surprised at the purity and the depth of His goodness. And we realize that, though He doesn't owe us anything, and though He is a very big God, He cares for us more than we care for ourselves. The splendor of God is the coexistence of His limitless size and His unchanging love, and a revelation of that requires an objective pursuit of Him."