| The phrase
"Addicted to Jesus" has been made into a song and it's a radical concept
on how a Christian should be. But it's more common for us to be addicted
to the Sunday service. The Lord spoke to me the other morning just as I
was waking up and said, "Why do you get high in the meeting and then get
low after it's over?" Then He then began to show me, not only my problem,
but the problem of many of us, including many ministries. A number of years
ago I could not understand how certain evangelists were able to believe
God for wonderful miracles in their healing crusades, yet seemed unable
to trust God in the same way for their finances. So often they had to resort
to man-made manipulative techniques to raise the money to run their ministry.
Sometimes desperate measures were sought to get those needed extra dollars
to stop them from going under. After being involved in a traveling ministry
for many years, I am now understanding the pitfalls and problems that so
easily occur. When the anointing lifts it easy to fall back into the flesh
realm. For us to have a wonderful meeting or a great Sunday service we need
to experience the anointing of God. People can come into a service low and
depressed, but after experiencing the anointing and presence of God, they
leave on a much higher plane. When we see this, it inspires us to concentrate
on praying and believing for a greater anointing and a greater manifestation
of God's power and presence for the next service or meeting in order to
touch and set free even more people. The danger is that we can become addicted
to meetings. We encourage people to come and get their fix on Sunday and
if it doesn't last for the whole week then lets have a Wednesday night service
for an extra boost. Please do not misunderstand me, I am not against having
anointed meetings as many times as necessary. Where revivals are taking
place people are coming out to meetings four and five times a week. That's
wonderful, especially when for so long, in so many churches, it was a miracle
to get people to come out for Sunday service, let alone any other time.
Yet the danger is of us making addicts of people. They are bummed out during
the week and have to come on Sunday or whenever to get their fix.
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| Staying
High
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I believe we should stay high all the
time, not just in the meetings. Church services are not suppose to be pumping
stations. Pump people up, they get deflated during the week and then we
pump them up again next Sunday. God's purpose is for us to walk in victory
on a constant basis and not just when we feel the anointing or presence.
Sunday morning we get the revelation and Monday morning we have the situation. As an old man of God once said, "God has married revelation to situation. You window shop in the Sunday meeting and see all the goodies that God has for you and then Monday you have to purchase them." "Buy the truth and sell it not" (Prov. 23:23). Most of us have been to the Mall, or visited a car showroom. We can look at all the wares being offered. We can fantasize about the new shiny car in our driveway, but that is unreality. For it to become our possession, we must pay the price. There is a price to pay to have continual joy, power, and victory. - Agreeing with God. |
| Being
Content |
The reason that many of us have hard times
between meetings, having the highs and then the lows, is because we are
not content with our lot. The society that we live in is never satisfied.
The more we have, the more we want. A man is believing that if he can just
get that raise, then all his financial problems will be over. He gets the
raise and then commits himself to a better car, or a bigger house and the
whole problem starts all over again. If I fuss about why I am not more
attractive, or more successful, why is my marriage not better? why are
my kids not more obedient? Why this or why that, I will be discontent and
miserable. I will then have to wait for Sunday for some encouragement.
So many people get a divorce because they didn't have the perfect partner,
or leave their job or church, because it doesn't suit them. We often make
a rod for our own back. We tell our children to have a good attitude when
they have to clean their room or take out the garbage and yet we make the
very same mistakes as they make. Instead of praising and worshiping God
in every situation, we get a bad attitude and gripe and complain during
the week and then need to come to church on Sunday to get pumped up by
the preacher.
When we become discontent and negative in our thinking, we open the door for evil spirits to minister to us. If we have a grateful heart and rejoice in every situation, then we become devil proof. Back in the seventies my wife, Kathie, and I, lived for six weeks in a mud hut in Kenya. There was no electricity, no sanitation, no soft chair or couch to sit on, no good food to eat. It was hard, and we were counting the days to return home. Yet I realized that we could have lived there for the rest of our lives if we had too. Comfort and modern conveniences are nice, but they really don't add to our happiness. Most of the things and concerns we have in our modern society are not worth worrying about. As long as we have food, clothing and shelter, we should be content, all the other things are icing on the cake. "And having food and clothing, with these be content" (1 Tim. 6:8). (see Heb.13:5. Phil.4:11.) If we trust God with our salvation why do so many of us freak out over our temporal needs not being met? "He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things" (Rom. 8:32). The greater includes the lesser. All of us desire growth and increase in our lives and ministries. That's O.K., but if we are always looking to the future and not enjoying the now, we will become like the proverbial donkey chasing the carrot. |
| Being Hooked | We can become so hooked on meetings and getting
high in those meetings, that after they are over we will come crashing
down. It may take a few hours, or a day or two, but it will happen. It
can even happen to preachers. Sadly there was one great healing evangelist
that couldn't cope with the lulls between the meetings. He needed to stay
high all the time, so he took to drinking and died an alcoholic in a hotel
room.
When the Lord spoke to me early that morning He was warning me to be careful not to be come a "ministry/meeting junky." When Peter and John went to the Temple to pray and they were accosted by the crippled man asking for alms. Peter did not say, "John get your guitar out and let's have some praise and worship, so we can get into the Spirit and feel the anointing, before I pray for this man." "Silver and Gold we do not have, but what I have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk" (Acts 3:6). When we come together, many of us are so needy, that we have began to rely on a few dedicated ministers to meet those needs. Yet Paul said When we come together, everyone of us has something to offer. "How is it brethren? Whenever you come together, each of you has a psalm, has a teaching, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification" 1.Cor.14:26). We should not come to meetings every time looking for the preacher to exhort us, but we are to come with enough blessing and anointing to build up others. "Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some, but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the Day approaching" (Heb.10:25). Now I'm the same as many others. I love to hear anointed preaching. I love to be stirred up and encouraged by great and gifted preachers. I love to hear great praise and worship, and enjoy being in large meetings. I love to preach to large crowds and be involved in large crusades and meetings. I love to pray for the children and youth and see them pray for the sick. I love to witness miracles of salvation, deliverance and healing. But God is not limited to big meetings or crusades. He desires to manifest Himself in our lives, homes and families. If we make room for Him, His anointing can be with us wherever we are. Apparently, many churches have benefited through having cell groups. People are being ministered to and also are ministering in these small groups and experiencing close fellowship with each other. They are also learning to have a more intimate relationship with the Lord. This is quite scriptural, as the early church met from house to house and also publicly. (see Acts.2:46.) Many years ago, we enjoyed a revival that lasted a number years. It was in a church community where the praise, worship, ministry and anointing was not just confined to the official meetings, but continued in many houses during the week. Fellowshiping around the kitchen sink, washing dirty dishes, proved to be wonderful times where God's presence came down. When the official meetings started nobody needed pumping up, what was happening in the homes was now seen corporately in the services. It was spontaneous, spiritual, combustion. I now see more clearly, that revival in churches comes out of transformed lives. After all, the church is just a large body of people; singles, adults, children, and families gathering together. I must believe what God says about me. I'm blessed of God, I'm His special child, He has a wonderful call and a destiny upon my life, He will never leave me nor forsake me, my well is full. As you believe the same, then your well becomes full. As the Christian family believes the same, then everyone else's well becomes full, then we can enjoy drinking from each other's well. The dry, thirsty, person who stumbles in, or is brought into a service, will not only be affected by what is happening on the platform, but what is going on in the people around them.
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