Write It Down

By Scott Wetzel

“Then the LORD replied:  ‘Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it.  For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false.  Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay’.” Hab 2:2-3 (NIV) 

Has God ever revealed to you what He has purposed for your life?  I had never really sought that out.  I knew that there had been yearnings in my heart.  I knew I had been given desires.  I knew God had a plan in those desires.  Then came the time where I KNEW what God wanted for me.  I began to pursue it, but I wore down pretty quickly.  People began to tell me how my vision was supposed to look, and it began to be pulled in multiple directions.  Instead of pursuing a Godly promise, I pursued the fractured goals of those around me.  It led to a blurry vision and eventually I walked away.

The biggest reason that we lose our visions is because we don’t write them down.  If God has shown you what this season in your life should look like, there is a terrific chance that the enemy will try to destroy that.  Satan wants nothing more than to knock us off our Holy pursuits and the best way to do that is to skew our memories of what God wants.  If we write down our visions, flesh them out, hold on to them, the dreams God has given us will become the reality He wants them to be. 

Writing down our Holy promises does several things:  It makes the metaphysical become physical, it keeps our memories intact, it restores our faith in times of hardship, it breaks the Devil’s lies, and it gives us proof of God’s sovereign nature at the time of fulfillment.   It also helps us to keep God’s vision for our lives as God’s vision for OUR lives.  Don’t ever let anyone tell you to change from God’s vision for your life.  You have it written down and God will honor your faith.  He is faithful to finish what He began.

This might sound simplistic; but honestly, how many of us have the promises that God has revealed to us in writing?  How many of us look at them, pray over them, and seek God’s will in moving forward in them?  I want to be who God has made me to be.  The best way to do that is to have a physical representation of a spiritual direction.

Holy Posture

By Scott Wetzel

“While Jesus was here on earth, he offered prayers and pleadings, with a loud cry and tears, to the one who could rescue him from death. And God heard his prayers because of his deep reverence for God.” Heb 5:7 (NLT)

How did you pray today?  I’m assuming you did pray and if you didn’t, maybe you should stop reading this and do that.  You can come back to me later.  If you did pray, though, how did you do it?  Did you close your eyes, bow your head, and fold your hands?  Did you look upward and move your lips to the thoughts in your head?  Did you quietly whisper your ideas to God? 

Elijah called down fire to burn up an altar.  He didn’t hesitate. because he knew God was faithful.  Daniel opened up the windows and prayed loudly enough for his neighbors to hear.  He knew it could mean death by lion, but God would save him.  David praised God by violently dancing half naked. He knew people were judging from a distance, and he didn’t care. All of these men prayed with belief…their posture proved that.

We rarely pray with holy posture, do we?

I’m not saying God won’t honor our prayers if we bow our heads.  Bowing our heads in true reverence IS holy posture, isn’t it?  When we bow our heads but our thoughts and prayers don’t match, our body language isn't honest.  However, when we pray with our entire being we are being entirely honest with God, and being entirely honest with God requires being bold.  Praying boldly means that we believe boldly.  Believing boldly honors God.  God honors those who honor Him (1Sam 2:30).  It begins a cycle of righteous and ultimately successful prayer.

When Jesus prayed, He prayed with loud cries and tears.  Jesus fully knew that God was sovereign and His prayer posture proved that.  Then the Scriptures say that's why God heard those prayers.  I’m going to ask you to make a commitment.  During your prayers in the next week, begin to pray with authority and boldness.  That doesn’t mean demanding things of God; it means knowing God’s power and strength are as miraculous today as they were in the times of Elijah, Daniel, David, and Jesus.  Pray with your entire body and pray like you mean it.  I believe that you will see a difference in the way you experience God.

More Than A Feeling

By Scott Wetzel

“How long, LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?  How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart?  How long will my enemy triumph over me?” (Psalms 13:1-2 NIV)

I did a teaching about sanctification the other night and had a long talk with a student after youth group about it.  We talked some more about what it meant and got a little bit deeper into the process of sanctification through our servitude.  Later on I received a text from them saying that they understood that sanctification wasn’t a feeling, but they didn’t feel like they “act sanctified”.  This person has a servant’s heart and is getting ready to do missionary work.  So it begs the question: “Why don’t I feel ____?” How important are feelings in my faith?

I hope it’s not the end all/be all of what I believe.  I don’t feel like a lot of things.  I don’t feel worthy or loved some times.  I don’t feel like going to work most mornings or like I’m doing much good for the Kingdom of God.  That’s because I’m human.  In Galatians 5:16-17, the Apostle Paul tells us that our flesh fights against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh.  They are in constant conflict because everything our human nature wants to do is contrary to what God would have us do.  We are self serving individuals.  Look around us. The world is telling us to do what feels good and our bodies respond in kind.  The world tells us to take the easy way and our minds respond in kind.  But here’s the kicker: to rely on feelings ALONE is to deny God.  That doesn’t mean a feeling can’t be the Holy Spirit; it means that we shouldn’t put all of our eggs in the “feeling” basket.  Our feelings need to match up to the Word of God and rest in His promises.  Jesus didn’t even feel like doing the will of the Father when He said “if you are willing, take this cup from me” (Luke 22:42).  If Jesus had done what He felt like doing, we’d all be in a lot of trouble.  He relied on the Scriptures, and the promise of God instead of His humanity.

So we can take a pretty big hint from Jesus.  It’s not whether or not we feel like it; it’s whether or not we’re willing.  Are we willing to choose the right way despite our feelings?  Are we willing to humble ourselves, even though it’s the hard way?  Are we able to lift our heads and know we are in the will of God when it gets tough?  The Father of Lies prowls like a lion, and he’s willing to tell us anything he can in order to make us wander from our Father.  Sometimes that means he tells us that our feelings are more important than reality.  We just need to know that reality is bigger than anything we can feel.

Childlike

by Scott Wetzel

^“For an answer Jesus called over a child, whom he stood in the middle of the room, and said, "I'm telling you, once and for all, that unless you return to square one and start over like children, you're not even going to get a look at the kingdom, let alone get in. Whoever becomes simple and elemental again, like this child, will rank high in God's kingdom. What's more, when you receive the childlike on my account, it's the same as receiving me.”- Mat. 18:2-5 (The Message)

At one week old, my baby girl doesn’t know how to do ANYTHING, which one might think would become tedious.  But, what I thought would be a boring (albeit tiring) time with her is turning out to be an interesting look into how a person learns to do all the things a person does.  She’s learning how to see, what the tongue should be used for, how to get nourishment into her body, how to breathe, how to recognize her father.  She’s got a clean slate, and that means she’s ripe for discovery.  She’s going to continue to soak in everything for a long time, because she doesn’t fully understand anything.  Her mind is open to wonders and experiences that have never happened.  Things, like our dog or my beard, are anomalies and need to be explored.

She’s seeking to learn so that she can grow and fully be the way she was created to be.  It’s her natural desire at this point.  There is a mechanism in her brain that tells her she needs to learn, eat, and use her senses in order to survive.  She doesn’t know anything about this world, but she knows that she wants to live.  That means every waking minute she is exploring her body’s functions.  However, she needs the ones that brought her into this world to guide, teach, and give her exactly what she needs.  She can’t do any of it on her own.  She’s just not strong enough.  It’s outside her realm of understanding.

This is part of what Jesus is telling us when He told us to be like children (Matthew 18:3).  Most children haven’t yet been spoiled by entitlement or bitterness.  They simply seek to learn.  As adults, we think we know what we see, what the tongue is used for, how to get nourishment and how to recognize our Father.  However, our motives aren’t always pure.  Many times, we’re not doing it to survive spiritually; we’re doing it out of wish for spiritual compensation, or to feel above our neighbor.  Becoming like children, in the spiritual sense, means we seek to receive knowledge as if our spiritual survival depends on it.  And that’s because it does.  God’s not content with where we are right now.  He has new wonders waiting for us.  His dimensions are far outside of ours and becoming childlike, without preconceived ideas, is the only way to reach them.  We must trust the One that created us, in order to be what He created us to be.   Praise God, He’s got something new for us each day.  Please Father, open my eyes to it.

My First Born Again

By Scott Wetzel

“...Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again”-John 3:2 (NIV)

Three days ago my life changed forever.  I’m still not sure how it changed or what’s about to happen, but I know it changed.  My wife and I had our first child, a screamingly beautiful little girl.  The father’s role in the birthing process is quite different than years past, according to my understanding.  Fifty years ago, a father would smoke packs of cigarettes while pacing back and forth waiting to hear whether it was a boy or a girl.  Thirty years ago, the dad would hold his wife’s hand while trying to watch what’s going on in a mirror, making it difficult to see any of the details.  In this day and age, they ask the father to help out (I’m sure it’s due to rising healthcare costs) by “holding a leg”.  This not only made me feel useful, but also gave me a bird’s eye view of all the action.  Watching the birth of your first child is amazingly beautiful.  It’s also kind of gross.  A gorgeous little creature comes out, but so do some of the most disgusting things you’ve ever seen in your entire life. 

When Jesus said, “born again”, I’ve always taken the position that he meant, and ONLY meant, that we become new creations, pure and holy.  That’s true, of course.  However, this experience has widened my thinking.  Truly becoming a follower of Jesus is much more than saying the “Sinner’s Prayer” and getting your fire insurance.  A whole lot of times we gloss over what it means to surrender all that we have and repent of our sins to our Creator.  We don’t tell people what it means to repent, and we end up with a church of lukewarm Christians.  To repent means that we get rid of the bad stuff in our lives...

which means we have to acknowledge the bad stuff...

which means we end up bringing up some gross things...

which means repenting in and of itself is pretty messy...

We can’t be a new creation with some of the old junk sticking around inside of us.  If we allow that to stay during our rebirth, it will rot.  Then we’ll be sick, and dirty, and without Christ.  We cannot gloss this point over.  It doesn’t serve any purpose, unless our purpose is to plant relationship destroying seeds. In order to grow as a new creation in Jesus, we have to release what kept us going before and embrace what keeps us going for eternity.  Only Jesus can take from us the things we don’t want to admit to and make us brand new.  Brand new like my little baby.