Time to Get Real 4

[HKHaugan]

“But still others received the seed that fell on good soil. They are those who hear the message and understand it. They produce a crop 100, 60 or 30 times more than the farmer planted (Mt.13:23 NIRV).”

“Faith is a blossom waiting on the Son to shine upon it

That it may open and flourish reflecting His light and beauty

The petals of faith are the gifts of the Spirit that give it shape

The stem carries the fruit of the Spirit to feed the gifts

The roots are the Word of God watered by His grace and love

filling the blossom with fragrance and color, drawing the bees who carry

its nectar to the hives of human hearts, sweetening each with His presence.”

(In the Spirit-HKH)

Therein lies the truth about faith not only that the mind may believe but that it is reality for the heart that it may trust the fact of Jesus, the faith of Jesus and accept the finality of Jesus.

We live in a world where so much is thrown against the spiritual reality of Jesus and His Word. You see it every day not only on a world level through the media but right around us in attitudes and behavior. It’s like watching a wrecking ball hurled against an old building to tear it down. It’s also like an artillery barrage intended to soften up the enemy’s defenses before an invasion. Just as the devil softened up Adam and Eve, invaded Eden and has continued his dark guerilla foray in the wilderness of lost hearts so he continues with us. He’s on a mission and that mission is to alienate and isolate every human heart from God. He knows no mercy when it comes to deception and intrigue. He is relentless. He has a multitude of spirits to entice the hearts and minds of those trapped in the snares of pride, fear and stubborn resistance. He knows the weaknesses of all of us. He knows where and when to alienate and isolate us from God and the kinds of spirits to send to get the job done.

In our particular age the devil has a subtle ploy. Being a master of distraction he seeds the world’s economic, political, social and ethnic unrest with his spirits of fear, distrust, suspicion, lust, greed, anger and hate to exploit our sin driven self-centeredness. There is nothing new there. Two things are new however, technology and the expanded world population, which the devil uses to get us absorbed to thinking globally when we are called to think and act locally. Media technology presents us with the massive population problems of worldwide suffering and conflict over which none of us have control. Instead of seeing God in charge, trusting Him to send His chosen gifted and talented believers into the mix as He wills, we allow the devil’s irritation of our anxiety to overtake our faith, political strategies to absorb our energies and heighten our lonely frustration and depression in the face of global odds. That is precisely where the devil wants us, frightened, alone, angry, frustrated and depressed.

God’s plan for us is faith in His Son, soaking in His Word, humbled in prayer and witnessing right where we are in our everyday experience. As we return to Scripture we see that Jesus centered His life on His disciples, His family and the daily encounter with people He met along the way. He sole interest was in the hearts of people. He saw in every individual value worth dying for. His investment locally became global only so far as it was spread from one local place to another. Remember, He never got much farther than thirty or forty miles from His home. He meandered through Galilee and stayed within the vicinity of Jerusalem and died in that locale. The old saying is true, ‘Bloom where you are planted.’ He did. Our mission is to replicate His. Really look at the locale in which we live. Pray, observe, identify and reach out right where we are. That’s how the faith spread in those early years as the Body of Christ grew. Jesus was the early believer’s core absorption. Where is God working? Wherever you are.

“Jesus replied, "What I'm about to tell you is true. You must have faith and not doubt. Then you can do what was done to the fig tree. And you can say to this mountain, 'Go and throw yourself into the sea.' It will be done. If you believe, you will receive what you ask for when you pray (Matt.21:21-22 NIRV).”