The IGNITE Blog
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Even from the Very Beginning... |
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Written by Elizabeth Gray
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"Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him away." - Genesis 5:24
Enoch...I
am looking forward to talking to him in the Kingdom to come. He
disappeared. Just like that...gone. "Dad? Where did you go?
Hello?" I think this is what I would have been saying when it happened
if I were Methuselah. I mean, this is not a cartoon where people just
disappear all the time. In real life, a man just disappeared...was
taken up to be with God.
Can you imagine? To delight the heart of God, to walk so
closely in His ways that He just decided to take you up one day? It is
like for a moment God was not patient enough to wait for Enoch's last
days on earth to come, so He just took him up. He just had to be with
Enoch. Like the couple that is planning on getting married in a year,
but they just cannot wait to be together, so they move the wedding up 6
months. What was it about Enoch's life, his heart, his way of relating
to the Lord that so moved the heart of God?
Then I wonder, if Enoch was this close to the Lord- walked
with Him, talked with Him, shared secrets with Him-what did God tell
this one He so delighted in? What inimate parts of His heart did He
share with Enoch? I was blown away the other day when I found these
verses in Jude:
"Enoch, who lived in the seventh generation after Adam, prophesied about these people. He said, "Listen! The Lord is coming with countless thousands of his holy ones to execute judgment on the people of the world. He will convict
every person of all the ungodly things they have done and for all the
insults that ungodly sinners have spoken against him." - Jude 14-15
I believe there was a deep intimacy there between Enoch and God. I
believe God would have called Enoch a friend the same way He did many
of the other patriarchs. Friends share their deepest desires, dreams
and secrets with each other. God could have chosen to tell this friend
anything, and who knows the depths of God's heart that were shared with
Enoch. We do know, though, that some of what was shared with this
friend of God was His plan for the end of this age and the beginning of
the next.
As
I have learned more about the end times, where all this is going and
the return of Jesus, I have been awakened to the fact that God has a
plan and has had one from the beginning. He has burnings and yearnings
in His heart. He has dreamed of a Kingdom where He partners with His
Bride and His glory is displayed from before time began. His holy
ones...they are coming with Him to judge, to rule
and reign. This has been the plan from the beginning. He talked with
Enoch about this seven generations after the world had begun. He did
not just come up with this thousands of years later. It was on His
heart from the start. God shared this with the man whom He delighted
in enough to take up from the earth before he ever saw death.
We cannot close our ears to His end time purposes if we want
to know His heart...if we want to know Him. The story makes no
sense...the part we play in the story makes no sense if we do not know
the end....oh and the endurance that comes when we know the end. Let
it fascinate your heart. It is not about facts...it is about the very
heart of God...and He will share it with those that walk with Him,
those who want to know Him.
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A Most Influential Weapon |
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Written by Vernon Naron
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I've recently returned to Houston, found a church, and I've been
praying over the Lords next step in my life. I have a great desire to
organize and lead corporate prayer at my new mega-church home, so one
afternoon a few weeks ago I sat in front of my computer and dreamed up
a comprehensive vision to establish Champion Forest Baptist as a true
house of prayer for all nations. In the midst of my 6 pages of vision
penned in a vain attempt to somehow satisfy my dreams for Champion
Forest, I unleahsed my passions and the following unfolded.
Many if not most in the church would generally agree on the
great ability and exceeding power of prayer, but often it's the most
neglected spiritual discipline. When we read about the great revivals
and the spirit-filled power-house prayer meetings they involved we
would probably unanimously agree on the great ability we have to
transform our world simply by means of bodly approaching the throne of
grace in a forward request. We believe God holds the universe in His
hands, holds the keys to all closed doors, is King above kings, is God
above gods, is the great omnipotent, omnipresent Ruler, and we utter
out a deep amen when the preacher proclaims with utmost energy that
this great God, our loving Father, personally hears to and responds to
the simple requests of we His children; however, unfortunately, I'm not
sure we completely make the connection. We have a heart-felt desire to
see our family changed, to see our church changed, to see our community
changed, to see our nation changed, to see our world changed as the
kingdom of God advnances in us and the world, but we seemingly stand
back in a lifeless hope that somehow shadows out our faith into
believing we have no ability in providing this highly prized grace to
bestow on the world. We forget we are the fullness of His body, His
grace, His power, His mercy, His love, and His truth to the world, just
as we fall victim to one of the greatest lies that utterly debilitates
our service in His kingdom. The lie is birthed out of a mystery, a
seeming contradiction, something perhaps impossible for our miniscule
though powerful minds to digest: the all-knowing, all-powerful,
sovereign God responds to and is perhaps moved to act per our simple,
devoted, persisting demands. As we consistently petition for His
kingdom to come to earth, He will respond. His kingdom is the only
kingdom of truth, the only kingdom of love, the only kingdom of peace,
the only kingdom where praise and adoration is given where due, where
all fall enveloped in humility and worship before the King of mercy,
and our simple requests effectually advances this kingdom, His
kingdom. It's a great mystery! The magnitude of His desires are
immutable; He is limitless; He is omnipotent and all-knowing; He is the
great sovereign God over all beings and spirits. We know these truths
and believe these truths, but these truths have led theologians and the
church alike to deplete the magnitude of the true power of prayer. In
turn this has led us to largely neglect the practice all together. A
great lie befalls us, whether as a blatant stament or a hidden thought:
prayer does not effectually change things in the world or move the
Spirit or the church to greater influence and spiritually authority,
because the Spirit and the Lord All-Mighty act to their fullest at all
times despite us. I don't understand the mystery, but I do understand
that prayer effectually changest things. How dare we question this
critical truth for the sake of a mystery. Let it be known: prayer
effectually changes things! Repeat it again and again, proclaim it
from the mountains' peak, prayer effectually changes things! Perhaps
you don't feel the overwhelming weight of this truth. Do you
understand the consequences? Do you realize the responsibility? Do
you hear the calling? Does this knowledge, this gem of truth, engulf
you in zeal? Wake up, O church, and step into your fullest potential!
Wake up, O church, and utilize with deep care and consideration perhaps
your greatest and most influential weapon. Wake up, O church, and
pray. Petition the Lord with consuming diligence. Wrestle with the
angel of God, though it may be painful, and demand the blessing He has
promised. Set yourself up, O church, as a watchman on the wall, and
give the Lord no rest, neither in day, nor in night. Wake up, O
church, and pray! I say it again and again: wake up, O church, and
pray!
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This is the Lord's Generation |
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Written by Ryan Couch
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This is the Lord’s generation.
Have you ever heard their stories? They are seven and eight years
old and have encountered more violence, evil and rejection than I have
in my 23 years of life. They may not sit and tell you their
story…though at times that will happen. Words will come out like a
flood from lips that quiver and eyes that are cast down, often times
only to be quenched when they realize what they have let slip out.
When they don’t tell you their story with their words, they tell you
with their eyes that are filled with shame when they disappoint you.
They do not understand forgiveness or mercy. They will tell you with
their stone cold glares that have come as they hardened their heart
from rejection after rejection. They will tell you with their hands
that hit others, and even themselves, with a force that is birthed from
an anger no eight year old should have in their heart. They will tell
you with their fingers that point and accuse. They will tell you with
their feet that kick desks and chairs and stomp from here to there.
Most of all, they will tell you with their tears when they finally let
themselves just be eight and rest in your embrace. Each tear tells you
that they so desperately just want to be a kid, that they need a safe
place, that they long for peace and that they have not experienced a
discipline that comes out of love before.
Have you heard their stories? His uncle stabbed his aunt. Her
father is in prison. She saw someone in her family murder another
family member. His dad does not take just one gun, but two when he
goes to the “dealer.” She will get beat if she gets in trouble at
school. He doesn’t have food at home. She cannot sleep at night
because her father beats her mother, so she falls asleep during class.
His siblings tell him he is stupid all the time. For him, you just
know there was “trouble” at home last night.
Have you heard their stories? They are the stories of a generation
that is greatly feared and greatly hated by the enemy. They are the
stories of the generation that will usher in the coming of our Lord.
They are the stories of a generation that will cry out and long for the
Judge to come back and bring justice to the ones that have so destroyed
their lives. They are the stories of a generation who need nothing
less than the mighty power of the Holy Spirit to transform their
lives. They are the stories, of worship leaders, preachers,
intercessors, doctors and car mechanics that the enemy is doing his
best to destroy…but more than that, they are the stories of children of
God that will be redeemed and their victory in love will be as burning
coals heaped on the head of the enemy.
This is the Lord’s generation. They are vital to the return of our
Lord. Their hearts and their cries move His heart. Let’s love them,
pray for them, fight for them, dream for them and advocate for them
just for that reason…they are His and He is coming for them to make
them His very own…a pure spotless bride.
A tribute to my sweet second graders in Bryan, Texas who may think
they are forgotten and have no great purpose in this earth…I see
otherwise.
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Written by William Shaw
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Psalm 107 begins with: “Oh give
thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever. Let
the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He has redeemed from the hand of
the enemy.” And the end of the chapter finishes as follows: “Whoever is
wise will observe these things, and they will understand the
lovingkindness of the Lord.”
If there is one thing I know, it is “that
I am a great sinner, and God is a great savior.” I think I have heard
the words savior, salvation, saved, un-saved, etc so many times in my
life that I have on occasions, unconsciously become callused to their
poignancy. But I feel that God, in His mercy is resurrecting an
understanding of salvation within my heart. And just as Moses told the
children of Israel to stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, so
the Holy Spirit is speaking to my heart.
Can it truly be said that we really know what
salvation is all about? Think about it! I feel that our understanding
of salvation has been bruised and weighed down under seven step help
books and thirty second alter call prayers. Not that such things don’t
have merit and worth, but they are not what salvation is truly about.
Salvation is something so much greater than just enlightenment and good
ideas. No effort of man could ever create salvation. For salvation
belongs only to God. As the Psalmist declared “Our God is the God of
salvation.”
Salvation is God stepping down from heaven
in all his majesty and power and saving man. Taking man out of darkness
and placing him in light. It is the resurrection from death to new
life. Do you feel it? Can you hear the intensity of it? Can you testify
of it in your own heart and life? The salvation of God is awesome and
breathtaking, public and intimate. His salvation is life-transforming!
Salvation is not awesome because
some of us were worse sinners then others, but because God in his
greatness chose to rescue you and me alike from the chains of death.
It would be an injustice against God for us to
say that salvation is a one-time event that happens in the life of a
Christian. Events come and go in life but the salvation of God comes to
abide and remain in us. A mistake I have made is to think salvation
happens only when I am born again, but that is not true. For God has
called me to continually interact with Him in time of need and trouble
that I may further know and understand the beauty of His salvation. The
salvation of the Lord is to be a way of life for the redeemed.
Carefully reading Psalm 107 we see “then they
cried out to the Lord in their trouble, And He saved them out of their
distresses, and troubles.” Four different times it declares the
salvation of God, and then it concludes the chapter with the fact that
it is the wise who will understand the Lovingkindness of the Lord. My
prayer is that we would be among the wise who observe the acts of God
in the earth and understand that He is SO, SO GOOD
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Written by Elizabeth Gray
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Intimacy
with the Lord. That is a phrase I hear all the time from friends, at
church and see in Christian writing. I like to talk about intimacy with
the Lord…it sounds so pleasant, so wonderful. Lately though, I have
found that when I really stop to think about intimacy with an uncreated
God, a God who is unexplainable, undefinable and outside of time, I do
not really know what that is. He knows everything about me. I am fully
known to Him. How well do I know Him though? How do I open my heart to
Him?
This is what I really cannot wrap my mind around, nor
want to try to. This God that I am invited to have intimacy with is a
real God Man that is a Warrior and a Judge who is really going to come
back to judge and make war in this earth on a very real day in time. He
is not a God far off and He is not imaginary. He is not passive.
Zechariah 14:3 - “Then the Lord will go out and fight against those nations, as he fights in the day of battle.”
Also, read Isaiah 63 and Revelation if you get a chance.
I just get this picture in my mind of this Jewish man, in splendor at
the head of an army riding forth to bring justice. As that picture
comes to my mind, I think… “and this is the one I am supposed to have
intimacy with? This is the one I have prayed to through the day and
this is the one that died for me on a cross…yet rose victorious? This
is the one that I bring my broken heart to? This is the one I serve?
This is the One? I am overwhelmed.”
How I need to know Him! How I need to understand who He
really is. A warrior, a judge, a bridegroom, and a king. These are not
just nice things to call Him. These are the realities of God. Each one
of them can have such impact on my heart. I think about the day that
the Lord Jesus returns and is going forth in battle. I think about the
day He returns in all His power causing the peoples of the earth to
mourn. I wonder, will there be something familiar in His gaze. When my
eyes lock with His, will I see the One I have been sharing my heart and
my life with…will I know those eyes…or will I see a stranger? Will I be
afraid? Will I be confused because I do not realize the reality that He
is a warrior who is truly jealous for His people? How can it be that
this One wants intimacy with me or with you? Of all things He could
desire! How can this be? What grace! What an honor He has given us. If
we really knew the One that was asking us to come in behind the veil
and share or hearts with Him I believe we would not be the same people.
Oh Lord reveal to me Your heart! Reveal to me the reality of who You
are that I will not be surprised on the day of Your return. Teach me
now how to be intimate with You.
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