Power For Today Magazine, May/June 2012

Power For Today Magazine: Power For Today Magazine, May/June 2012

Power For Today Magazine, a monthly magazine for understanding our lives and times, is published monthly and is a publication of Apostolic Fellowship International Ministries. May/June 2012: "My Own Way Never Really Mattered Anyway," calling believers to examine themselves and their own pursuits of…

Becoming All Things To All People

When I started out in ministry about fifteen years ago, I was still Catholic.  I also wasn't a very nice person.  I was sociable, but judgmental.  By my nature, I am serious and intense to the point of being grave.  I like to think, to figure, to analyze.  Yes, that is part of what makes me a good apostle - but at the time, I was so out of balance, I wasn't much good to anybody.  After I was born again, I was still much of the same way: serious, austere, judgmental, perhaps even argumentative at times.  Much of my conversion to the faith of the Lord came about through my intellect rather than my emotions, and so I figured everyone reasoned that way.  I thought I would make such incredible arguments, people would HAVE to want to become Christian.  That means I spent a lot of time fighting with people over this doctrine or that, insistent I was right, and damning people to hell who dared to disagree with me.  After all, I had Bible verses!  I had answers for everything!  They were just ignorant.  I lived frustrated and angry...because I KNEW I had to be right.

One day God spoke to me, clear as day: "Lee Ann, people aren't saved because they agree with you.  They are saved because of their relationship with Me."

I cried for three days.  I couldn't believe God would speak to me like that.  Here I was, trying to be in the ministry He said I was supposed to be in, and He tells me I am doing it all wrong.  Part of me was mad at God.  Another part of me was mad at everyone else, because I figured if they would have just cooperated, God wouldn't be having this conversation with me.  The other part of me was mad because I didn't want to think I was wrong about something.   

In hindsight, God was beginning to teach me an important principle: He was teaching me the foundations to becoming all things to all people.  This first realization was my first break with the law I'd lived by my whole life, and my tears were just as much about that as they were about the chastisement I was experiencing.  I was born again, but I lived by the law.  I lived according to strict outward codes of so-called holiness and adhered to the doctrines of men.  I struggled with my identity as a woman.  I struggled in my relationships.  I struggled with my leaders and I struggled within myself.  I didn't like who I was, because I didn't know who I was in Christ.  I didn't understand who God was calling me to be, or who He was asking me to be. I didn't understand, and I was struggling...because I like to understand.  I was hardened, thinking holiness meant I had to be hard, unfeeling, uncaring, and uncompassionate.

Over the next several years, God dealt with me about myself, and about the concepts we hold so dear in the church because we simply do not want to let go.  I experienced different religious services.  I lobbied for women's issues, and dealt with politics.  I sat with the women who contemplated abortion or who felt they had no other option at some point in time.  I worked with and alongside the gay community, educating about HIV/AIDS because the church didn't want to touch it.  I moderated the discussions about sex among women who were afraid to talk about it to anyone, even their husbands.  I sat in the room with client after client, having to ask personal questions about their intimate lives, while doing HIV testing to assess risk.  I saw a side of divorce that we don't consider in the church, as many push against divorce, thereby pushing the agenda of bad marriage.  I worked with women inmates and women in halfway houses.  I did literacy training.  I held the hand of the woman who struggled with infertility.  I watched the battered woman go back to her abuser, even becoming that battered woman multiple times throughout my adult life.  I talked to the soldier with PTSD so severe, he couldn't talk about what he saw in combat, now nearly 30 years later.  Over the years, I have watched people struggle, seeking, and hoping for answers, waiting for someone to come along who would not judge them, but instead, would reach out their hand and provide them with the love and support they need.   

One day, while on the phone with someone who openly lives a life many in the church would disapprove of, I silently asked God why I was having this conversation.  He said to me, "I am teaching you to become all things to all people."  I didn't see the power in this statement at the time, but I see it now.  God was quoting His Word: "Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings." (1 Corinthians 9:19-23, NIV) 

The experiences I have had, in advocacy, education, and ministry, have taught me powerfully on God's precept of reconciliation and restoration.  Apostles especially are called to act as ministers of reconciliation.  We cannot operate in this ministry if we are so hung up on a hardened concept of faith that we can't reach out to everyone.  God was teaching me, and continues to teach me, how I can reach out to people so that they might become reconciled to God, wherever they may be on that issue in their lives.  This is a work that is for the sake of the Gospel - it is not contrary to it.  Loving people doesn't mean we believe everything they do is right.  It doesn't change what God has called sin, nor does it minimize it.  What it does do is helps people to know that everything they have done does not have to be the end for them.  It also helps us to consider our own selves and what God has brought us from, causing us to be humble instead of arrogant, using holiness as an excuse to abuse others.  So much rhetoric in today's church condemns people for things that we ourselves are just as guilty of, only in different ways.  Maybe you did not have an abortion in your day or you never struggled with same sex attraction, but I will venture you did gossip about someone, killing their reputation, and that you have united yourself to something idolatrous at some point, thereby creating an unholy union.  If I say that, people say "Well, apostle, you don't understand what I went through."  That's true - and you don't know what someone else went through, so stop judging them.  Throwing the book at people over a few rhetorical issues isn't getting us anywhere.  It is not a witness, and it is not productive.  It is not becoming all things to all men - becoming a servant - becoming a solution instead of a problem - it is a deterrent to the Word. 

Holiness is not a judgment: it is an assessment of ourselves.  We talk about it all the time because the church wants to see an exterior of what it used to be.  We can't be that now because the exterior never was.  Throughout history, those leading the church and those in the church have struggled with the same issues we see today.  Some of the biggest names in church history had the worst struggles with drug addiction, adultery, sleeping around, family issues, and the like.  Some of them overcame those issues, but many of them did not.  There are those in history who would find some of the modern concepts of holiness absurd and ridiculous.  God is calling us to get real and get it together so we can help someone out, to become all things to all people.  Stop the nonsense, stop imposing our perspectives on others, stop the "right fight," and start being productive.  Holiness puts the burden on us - not on everyone else - to do what we know is right.  It raises our standard, not the standards of the secular world or government.  Instead of looking at everyone else, holiness stands to make us examine ourselves and the areas where we do not measure up in the pursuit that we will seek out God and walk with Him all the more.

We are holding on to stubborn pride in today's church and it is hurting our ability to minister and reach out.  I understand a desire to stand for principle and to uphold holiness, but I also see the Word of God as a collection of divine precepts that encourage us to find a middle ground on its presented issues.  Holiness, compassion, and love are not opposites.  On the contrary, if we are living according to holiness, we will live in love.  If we get so obsessed with holiness that it's all we think about, we get so hung up on rules and regulations that we lose sight of why God calls us to be a set apart people in this world.  Too much preoccupation with holiness leads to self-righteousness, which leads us straight into rules, which leads us straight into legalism.  Too much preoccupation with misguided love leads us into absurdities and abhorrent doctrines.  We need to find the balance between the two: between love and holiness, compassion and principle.  Holiness shows people the way, while love draws to the truth.  In holiness we live as God calls, and in love, we become what we need to become to draw them to God's truth.

I will allow nothing to stop me from reaching out in the Gospel.  If I am in a legalistic setting, I will wear a long skirt, I will put on a wig, I won't wear make-up, I will use the King James Version of the Bible, I won't wear pants, I won't talk pop culture in my message, I'll sing the old songs of the church, and I will make sure my secular ring tone does not go off in the church building.  If I am in a setting where people need love, I will not let the fact that someone had an abortion or a pregnancy out of wedlock, is gay, is HIV positive, is or has been in prison, is a battered woman, or has a struggle in their lives stop me from reaching out to them in love.  I will be what is needed at that moment, in that time, to that person, that human being created in God's image despite the course their lives, actions, and ways may have taken them.  If they need a hug, they will get a hug.  If they need a listening ear, they will get a listening ear.  If they need a solution to their situation, I will be their solution.  I will be all things to all people.  It doesn't mean I agree with them, or will do the things that they do - but it does mean that I will not let a fear of compromise stop me from being the only living epistle these people may ever know.  It's not compromise to live in God's love.  It's just becoming all things to all people, that I may save some.  People, let's get past our issues, so we can help people resolve theirs.    

"The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee." - Jeremiah 31:3 (KJV)  

(c) 2012 Lee Ann B. Marino.  All rights reserved.

I Am Not Now That Which I Once Was: The Power Of Remembering

Yet You, LORD, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of Your hand. - Isaiah 64:8

I should really subtitle this blog "What I was doing when I should have been working on the Christian Counseling book."  OK, I'll admit that I have been working on the book most of the afternoon, and my mind wandered a little for a bit.  I am a hyperstimulation person, which means I work best when I have five or six things going on at the same time.  For example: I am working on the Christian Counseling book, a website, grading papers, preparing for an ordination in New Jersey next weekend, and sitting here on FB.  Most of the time when I am on FB, I am working on a project.  At the moment, it's pretty quiet here, save my neighbors who sound like they are having a log-rolling competition (see status for further details).  I don't have the television on, nor any music at the moment, and Gideon and Fiona are having moments of silence as they nap.  So....yeah...it's a little unstimulating here right now.  I don't have a lot of distractions, only projects.  So...I started looking at FB profiles of people I knew "once upon a time."

Out of the 2,697 friends I have on my personal FB profile, I've known only one of them for most of my life.  When social networking first became popular with the advance of MySpace (do we all remember MySpace?  Wow seems like a lifetime ago!), the first people I looked for were people I "knew" once upon a time.  The reason for that was simple: most of the people I knew at the time were not really very tech savvy, and none of them thought the internet would ever take off (ha ha ha).  So I looked for people I used to know, and found a few.  I added them on MySpace and then later on Facebook, and kept them around for awhile.  Most of them were on my profiles for well over three years.  There was a common theme, however: only two of them ever talked to me, and the last time I talked to one of them, it really didn't go well.  The conversation started, after not speaking to me for over a year, like this: "Don't take this the wrong way, but you don't look good in white."  Um...?  Is there a right way to take it when someone starts the sentence with "Don't take this the wrong way?"  I am not a real sensitive person, but I must admit, that conversation really rubbed me the wrong way.  In hindsight, maybe it wasn't just the conversation that rubbed me that way, maybe it was the whole thing.  Every time we talked, she didn't like something about my life, or understand something, or didn't want to talk about something, or always asked me the same question: "Don't you ever do anything for fun?"  I learned quickly there was no right way to answer this question as we had radically concepts of "fun" and apparently nothing I did was much "fun" to her.  Then there were the others I knew who would post inappropriately on the networks or just generally ignored me.  All these years later, I still wasn't part of the group, and I was being ignored digitally now instead of in school.  How stupid does it get, and HOW old are we now, again?   

One of the things I began to find over time was so simple, I don't know why I never considered it: the people I didn't like once upon a time, I still didn't like.  The people I thought were kiss-ups, I still thought were kiss-ups.  Overall, however, I found that I didn't have anything in common with any of them anymore.  What we had in common were things that we did a long time ago.  What seemed so important back then - talking about television shows, life-or-death situations at school, who liked who, new life discoveries, "hanging out," and the like...all didn't seem so relevant anymore.  They were things that mattered and were relevant then, but didn't seem important anymore.  Somehow, those things we used to have, the commonalities we had...weren't that many...we just were in the same place, at the same time, and that was enough to have something in common.

So today I looked at a few "profiles" of people I knew.  No, they aren't my friends now; some of them never were.  Those that once were probably won't be my friends again.  Some are married.  Some are single.  Some have children.  Some are divorced.  What scares me more than anything is the way that the same cliques are still together.  They still don't include this one or that one.  Many of them are not that far from where they were ten, fifteen, or twenty years ago.  And then I think of myself: we're older and I am still not in the clique.  I still don't fit in.  Beyond this, I think what I have realized is that my life seems so different than it once did.  I've been to school.  I've lived in a few different states since then.  I've worked up and down the east coast, the Midwest, and even in Puerto Rico.  My perspective on life is radically different than it once was.  I've met the Lord and that changed my entire life.  He called me to be an apostle.  I have met so many wonderful people and had so many awesome opportunities.  I've written several books, published some, taken on a university chancellor position.  Life is just so....different.  Many of them are exactly where they used to be...but I'm not.  It's about more than what I have done, it's about who I have become, and I owe that to Christ.  Had He not intervened when He did in my life back in 1999, I am not sure where I would be now.  It's a dividing point, but it is also the pinpoint of something else: a new start, a new beginning, and a new person.    

As I looked over the profiles of these people I once knew, I remembered.  I remembered the good, and the bad: the parties, the fun, yes, the dates, the dances, the days spent playing on the railroad tracks, the games at recess, serving on the altar, getting into trouble, the fights and the arguments, the shared hopes and dreams, and the ambition that one day, we would all be together, in the same place.  I was supposed to "marry" my first boyfriend and we'd all live in apartments in New York City, across the hall from one another, and never, ever again think about Catholic school, uniforms, and the like.  I remembered the majority of my friends and associates lived with the abuses of our parents, and the majority of us lived with a parent who was an alcoholic.  We lived abused by the Catholic Church, and didn't even recognize it yet.  Many of us stood together for years to come, through the death of parents and grandparents, friends and loved ones, deaths and suicides, college and beyond...and in what seems to have been the blink of an eye, ten, fifteen, twenty, and now over twenty years have passed.

In this process, I realized that I don't miss my former life.  I don't miss who I was ten or twenty years ago.  I don't miss the people who weren't what I needed then, and absolutely can't be what I would need now.  The people who were there for me then were there for that time and season, and I will forever be grateful for their presence.  At the same time, I recognize they can't be here for me where I am, now. 

The song "Photograph" by Nickelback always makes me think of the concept of going back, looking back, and about the perspective needed to know when it is time to say good-bye to the past.  We often talk about leaving the past behind in a negative context, as if what happened to us way back when was all bad.  We need to realize this perspective is unbiblical, because the Word calls us to testify to where God has brought us from.  God doesn't call us to forget; He calls us to say good-bye when it is time to do so.  This is a deeper process than we often recognize.  In saying good-bye to the past, we are also saying good-bye to the people we used to be.  Sometimes we are blessed with friends or family members who come with us into our new lives, but this doesn't always happen.  Saying good-bye is about more than just the bad - it's about recognizing what was once good isn't going to always be what's needed in the present, and the future. 

Good-bye gives us a respect for our foundations and a respect for moving on at the same time.  It doesn't disregard everything, but realizes it all has had its purpose at different points in time.  We can respect the past without living in it now, or carrying it with us to wherever we are to go next.  It's OK to remember, to recall, and to testify.  I am proud to say that thanks to God's presence in my life, I am not that now which I once was - and I would not realize that if I never remembered where I came from.  There are many things, given the opportunity, I would change about my life.  Remembering means I recall good decisions and bad ones - and things I would love to change both now and then.  Yet in looking at both who I used to know, where they are, and where I was, the one thing I would not change is the process the Lord has worked within me.  Has it been a perfect journey, no, it has not - but I know that, in the long run, it is a blessing to continue to become the person He desires me to be.                       

"Every memory of looking out the back door, I have a photo album spread out on my bedroom floor - It's hard to say, time to say it, Goodbye, goodbye...Every memory of walking out the front door, I found the photo of the friend that I was looking for - It's hard to say, time to say it, Goodbye, goodbye" - Nickelback

(c) 2012 Lee Ann B. Marino.  All rights reserved.

Discerning Wise and Foolish Behavior

Tonight the Lord called Prophetess Yolanda Davis-Greggs to lead "Midnight Prayer." When she spoke on why she was called to this, the wise and foolish virgins came up. In speaking of that, I realized that the reason why midnight prayer and the virgins were so inter-connected on that prayer call. The first reason is because these are the "last days," and that, thereby, makes it the "midnight hour." It means that the coming of Jesus is nearer than when we first believed, and near enough to which we need to take our times and our awareness of His coming seriously. The second part of that plays in with the first: if it is the midnight hour, then the wise virgins are called to be ready at any time, as the Groom will come. Yet the Word cautions us greatly against the foolish - and for good reason, as He has revealed on tonight. As I read the passage after we got off the prayer line, I realized something very key: there is only one way to be wise, but many ways to be foolish. The way we tell the difference is by discernment.

Matthew 25:1-2 (AMP): THEN THE kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish (thoughtless, without forethought) and five were wise (sensible, intelligent, and prudent).

I've heard so many spins on what this passage is about, it isn't funny. The Word is clear that it is the Kingdom of God; in other words, it is about us. In the Kingdom of God, there are, therefore, both foolish people and wise people. In fact, the Word here points out that the numbers are about half and half: half of us are wise, and half of us are foolish. How many of you have heard me lament about how many people just act like idiots? Well, I'm not that far off the mark. If 50% of the church is foolish, that means the dingbat ratio is enough to make someone nuts.

This does beg the question, however: why are there foolish people in the Kingdom? If the Bible exalts wisdom, why would God tolerate foolishness? My best answer to this question is that there are three possibilities, and I'm still not sure there is not more to possibly glean from it. The first answer is to say that salvation isn't based on our personal level of wisdom. There are many, many wise people throughout history who over-relied on wisdom and became vain in that knowledge. The second reason is because we live in a foolish age, where even the church is foolish. With ministers who don't teach right and people who don't discern right, it's not a big secret that wisdom isn't a prime value in today's church. Believers think if they get a new car, God must be happy with them, failing to consider the fact that anyone can go and get a car loan and have a car. They don't know wisdom because it isn't a value; that which is wise is deemed complicated or unnecessary in favor of often what could be deemed as that which is ridiculous. It's also worth noting (as something I tapped on in my last blog) that not everything in the Word or even in the Christian life is about salvation. One of the biggest mistakes we make in today's church is turning everything into a heaven/hell debate. The Apostle Paul points out that while all things may be permitted, not all things are beneficial. The Apostle was point out with his very words that not everything is a salvation issue - some things are just about the exercise of wisdom. Smoking, for example, is not a wise decision. There are numerous reasons why smoking is a bad idea for one's health. There is nothing in the Bible, however, that says smoking is a sin. Smoking a cigarette will not keep you out of heaven. I know the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, I know we are supposed to honor the vessel, but that is what makes smoking unwise - not a sin. Gluttony, however, is mentioned as a sin because it is about more than just the physical being, and that means everyone pointing fingers at smokers better start looking at the insatiable desires they have. But, I digress. Back to the topic at hand.)

There is also the possibility that those who are in the Kingdom and are simply unwise are "tares" waiting to be revealed in this midnight hour. Because that seems to be a common theme in last days teaching, I am inclined to believe this is heavily at play in this passage. Those who are foolish grow alongside those who are wise, and, for a time, look exactly the same as those who are wise. You can't tell the difference between the two on the surface. They may go to the same church, listen to the same Christian music station, even wave their praise banners at the same time. They may both use the same ministerial "title," maybe even preach. Yet the Word here goes on to tell us how we can identify the wise from the foolish, and it is very, very simple.

Matthew 25:3-9 (AMP): For when the foolish took their lamps, they did not take any [extra] oil with them; But the wise took flasks of oil along with them [also] with their lamps. While the bridegroom lingered and was slow in coming, they all began nodding their heads, and they fell asleep. But at midnight there was a shout, Behold, the bridegroom! Go out to meet him! Then all those virgins got up and put their own lamps in order. And the foolish said to the wise, Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out. But the wise replied, There will not be enough for us and for you; go instead to the dealers and buy for yourselves.

So the foolish didn't prepare for the bridegroom's late arrival. In other words, they just relied on the fact that he would come when THEY were ready. They believed he would do what THEY expected. They had the bridegroom operating like THEY thought he should, and they made no preparations to the contrary. These are the people who today believe God works like THEY think He should. They see God as a big version of themselves: they can do no wrong, they are so "anointed," they are always dealing with the devil because it can't be that God is trying to reveal something to them, and most of all...they have a modus operandi. What exactly is that "modus operandi,' you ask?

The wise come prepared because they know God's ways are not their ways. This means that, in many ways, they are off the "beaten track." That is because they are making a new track for people to follow. They go through and face warfare in their lives, but the warfare is not haphazard: it is designed to hamper the work. In an effort to keep the lamp burning, the anointing is guarded and extra precaution is taken to ensure the light will still be burning when Jesus returns. They persist not to fall asleep, because the journey is tiring. And what do the foolish want to do? They think that because THEY came unprepared, THEY fell asleep that they now need "help" and then they get manipulative. "Well if you were REALLY a Christian, you'd give me some of your oil!" "If you have so much extra oil, you should share it with me!" "The Word says we should love each other, you need to show me how much you love me!" "If you are my sister/brother, you will give me some of what you got!" "You should help out my ministry with what you have - it shouldn't be about the credit!" "If the Holy Spirit is calling you to my event, you should use your own resources to get here and help me with my call!"

People, people, people, the foolish are manipulative - which proves that smart they may not be, but crafty, they are! The foolish have learned enough of the ways of the Kingdom to try and use the wise to develop the call they claim God gave them. They know people aren't taught properly about matters of love and helping each other, and that ministers can easily feel guilty with the right words and presentation. The Word, however, makes it very clear what marks wisdom and what marks foolishness. The wise see through this behavior. They see through manipulative conduct and call it out for what it is. They tell them right where it's at: NO. NO, I am not going to let you suck my anointing dry because you don't have anything of your own. NO, I am not going to give you my oil because there isn't enough in me for me AND for you, too. What you need to do is go get your own.

In this day and age of ministry, there will be times when we will have to guard our anointing for dear life and not be real nice with some people. These people who try to steal our anointing, our oil, need to be told off. They need to hear the word "NO." Yes, they will turn it and make you out to be selfish. You aren't selfish. Later in Matthew 25, Jesus does an excellent job of telling us exactly who needs our help, and it is not people who make the choice to be unprepared, lazy, pampered, self-centered, or people who want to be called but aren't, so they'll just steal what God gave to someone else. They keep trying to show up for the wedding in inappropriate clothing, just because they want to come - and God doesn't stand for it! Nobody is entitled to anything they don't pursue in God. To act any other way is to act foolishly, because letting the foolish take the anointing is to squander the gift of God on your life. So some of us need to check ourselves and stop acting foolishly. They may be coming along to you and saying everything and you just hand them a straw to guzzle your oil down to the point where you've got nothing left - not for God, not for anybody. Handing everyone everything they ask for is not good for them because people need to learn how to be responsible on their own. Responsibility, just as we see it in the natural, is a spiritual principle: we are spiritually responsible for ourselves and that is not learnt in the Kingdom if we hand everyone everything all the time. You are foolish to let your light go out because an anointing usurper comes along, wants what you have, and you hand it over to them. TELL THEM NO, GO GET THEIR OWN. That is what's best for them AND for you. That is wise behavior!

Matthew 25:10-13 (AMP): But while they were going away to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were prepared went in with him to the marriage feast; and the door was shut. Later the other virgins also came and said, Lord, Lord, open [the door] to us! But He replied, I solemnly declare to you, I do not know you [I am not acquainted with you]. Watch therefore [give strict attention and be cautious and active], for you know neither the day nor the hour when the Son of Man will come.

Those who are foolish will miss the call of the bridegroom. They will miss the very presence of Jesus, the very wedding of the Bridegroom and the Bride spoken of in Revelation, because they will have wasted too much time trying to get something for nothing. Wisdom tells us to be prepared and to guard our preparations. In ministry, our preparations are our ministry. If we are truly chosen, our actions will align with wisdom. If we have allowed too many people to take advantage of what God has placed in our lives, now is the time to close the borders and guard what God has given. If we are foolish, it's time to check the reason for that and start being responsible. Leaders, it's time to impress responsibility on others, so they will take spiritual things seriously. Verse 13 reminds us of the importance of being alert, prepared, watchful, and waiting, because we don't know when Jesus is coming back. He could arrive ten minutes after I write this, or not for another ten thousand years. The point is that it doesn't matter. When it comes to spiritual things, we need to want and seek more than just avoiding hell after we die: we need to seek wisdom that reflects the Lord's precepts within our lives. If you are, that's great. If you're not, it's time to turn that tide...because you know not at what time the Son of Man shall return.

(c) 2012 Lee Ann B. Marino. All rights reserved.

The New Dispensation: Till My Change And Release Shall Come

Definition of DISPENSATION 1
a : a general state or ordering of things; specifically : a system of revealed commands and promises regulating human affairs b : a particular arrangement or provision especially of providence or nature
2
a : an exemption from a law or from an impediment, vow, or oath b : a formal authorization
3
a : the act of dispensing b : something dispensed or distributed

(http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dispensation)

In certain religions, a dispensation is a distinctive arrangement or period in history that forms the framework through which God relates to mankind.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dispensation_%28period%29)

Some of you probably saw my status on Facebook, posted on April 12:

"By the Spirit I sensed a spiritual shift this past Sunday (April 8th). I haven't said anything about it because I wanted to wait and see if anyone else shared much about it. What I am distinctly seeing in the Spirit is a greater demarcation between those who are of God - those who are Kingdom-minded and continuing in His work - and those who are not of God, but may claim to be. In other words: the distinction between who is of God and who is not (no matter what they say) is going to become greater and more notable. Uncovering of those things which are covered is to take place in a greater way, and with more fervor and intensity. Be aware of who your leaders are. Be aware of who you follow. Be aware who you are friends with, and who you work with. Stop thinking the eternal answer to ministry is fame, or that "famous ministers" have some kind of answer to launch you in ministry. Stop acting like a bunch of suck-ups when you get around someone with a lot of money or who you think can do something for you....and do what is right. Do right, love goodness, and walk humbly with God (Micah 6:8). It's grow-up time. If you want to play in the sandbox, you are going to get left behind!"

The specific thing I did not post from the revelation was a word God gave to me: dispensation. The reason I didn't post that word is because, well, we all know how people on Facebook can be. I wanted to watch the words because everyone always says a bunch of clichés: "It's a new day!" "It's a new season!" "God's bringing change!" Nine times out of ten they will say these things and all they have in mind for them is the same things that they've always done: there's nothing new about them. People today want "new," they want "different," but what they really want is...exactly the same. Recently while speaking with someone on FB who insisted they were an apostle (what they were was operating by divination, and wound up being blocked), the individual started talking about a "shift." Since I recently had posted the above word, I was curious as to see what page he was really on. His answer? There's a new pouring out of God's glory. I said to him, "What about the fact that people still didn't receive the last pouring out of His glory?" We want God to do a new thing or have us do something new when we haven't even done the last thing yet.

This "new" tagging is so overdone, I hesitated saying anything at all about the shift the Lord revealed. This shift is more than just a new wind or something where people will jump up and down and sing the same five songs they've sang forever or have a deeper desire to continue in church as they have for ages. This is more than a shift. In fact, I am not really how sure the shift is that much about the conventional church, as most of the words people get for the church are often about "church" in general. There are those of us who are sent to clean up the church. More and more leaders tell me they don't want to have anything to do with the church (I had four of them tell me that yesterday), they just want to find their own people here and there, and never deal with or address the issues present in the church at large. Those of us, such as myself, get to do all the heavy lifting, deal with all the legalistic, nasty, self-centered, self-righteous, and unteachable people, and yes, take hit after hit after hit from those who are resistant to the new dispensation at hand. No consideration is given to the fact that leaders who ignore the needs of the current church are bringing people into a church that is damaged, and forget the fact of Body connection - being connected to a leader who feels they are somehow doing things right while everyone else may be doing them wrong - does not make the problems of the church go away, nor does it make the people in the church immune from being drawn right into them, along with everybody else.

The mess grows, it gets bigger, it gets worse, while people just look for something "new," namely, a "new fad." We want something to just come in and fix all the problems we don't want to deal with in the church - and now, even leaders are adopting that attitude. We want ministry to be easy, financially lucrative, and make us famous. We've grown gravely serious to the point of self-centeredness. Nobody can take a joke, everyone thinks everything you say is somehow geared at them, people cross boundaries and step on your territory just to make their point, and the tensions in the church run so high, you could cut them. People are at odds, do not submit to order or decency, and just do not know their place. And we really think the answer is to bring more people into this mess?

I'm not talking salvation here, it really annoys me that nobody can make a point or talk about something without that coming up. There are some things in God's Kingdom that are not a part of the salvation debate. I'm talking beyond salvation here: I am talking about the need to heal the church, not bring in a new fad where everyone wears the same T-shirt with a slogan on it. I'm talking about really and truly impacting people's lives: moving beyond trite, little expressions, or misusing the Word, or just telling people to re-think their circumstances to change their lives. I'm talking about God's command for us to transform everything we touch, and transform the world because the church is in it. I am talking about making the church relevant again.

The new dispensation of God seeks to make the church relevant again. He's giving us yet one more chance to get it right before Jesus comes back. Dispensations don't come as fads, they come for periods of time. So no, it's not the next "new thing." We, those who say we are church, or Kingdom, or whatever it is we are calling ourselves now, need to see the church relevant. Not guilt-ridden, not a political lobbying group, not an entertainment capital, not a subculture, but relevant. Relevant indicates we have an answer to issues, not slogans or positive thinking mantras. We need to be practical, down-to-earth, and purposed.

God's revelation of the word "dispensation" tells me we have begun a new phase of ordering within the Kingdom. Note I have not said a new order, but a new ordering. God is arranging, establishing, and setting up for something among those who will be serious and sincere in His Kingdom. And, simply put, those who choose to be a part of it are going to have to do more than give their lip service. God is stirring things up. He is expecting things of us. We can't just say "I'm in" - we have to prove ourselves, show ourselves, and impact lives. As part of this arrangement, the first thing we need to realize is we are not under the law - but under His grace. This, however, is not an excuse to be disobedient or to claim to be something we aren't. There are a few key points God has revealed that are part of this dispensation, and the truth therein.

We shall know the Spirit by the Spirit and one another by the Spirit - Years ago in the Catholic Church, there was a song titled, "They'll Know We Are Christians." One of the verses went as follows: "We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord. We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord. And we pray that all unity may one day be restored. And they'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love; yes they'll know we are Christians by our love." If we are one in the Spirit, which we learn in Ephesians 4, then that means we know one another by the Spirit. It is how I define the bond of intimacy: intimacy is knowing someone by the Spirit. People argue you can't know someone from a distance (such as on the internet) or that you can't impact people you've never met, but I beg to differ. If we know by the Spirit, distance is not an issue. None of us have ever met Jesus physically, but that does not mean that we do not know Him! How do we know Him? By the Spirit! It is the same principle with knowing one another. In this season, God is revealing who knows us from who does not - and who needs to be removed from our lives because they do not truly know who we are. Often we think we need to know lots of people and have lots of people around us, but that is not necessarily the case - and it is certainly not the precept of the remnant. The remnant is a small, devoted group that loves God, knows one another by His Spirit, and does a big work that could never be reached in the natural. From the remnant comes many - it does not remain small, but starts small. Who really knows you by the Spirit? Who truly is there? Who truly edifies? It may not be those in the church you've been physically attending; it may be people you know all over the world, or who are in another state. It may be a Bible study group you meet with over a teleconference, or a group meeting in someone's house. We are called to connect deeper in this dispensation with those who we are truly united to in the Spirit, to support and edify one another during this time.

An increase in warfare - Everyone wants to hear the battle is over. Everyone wants to hear victory is on the horizon. Everyone wants to hear that because they want to stop having to fight. God needs warriors in this dispensation, people who can withstand attack. The attacks are intense because we WILL press on to see the end and also because the numbers of those truly working are so very few. Too many I see give up anytime they feel the warfare coming on. Is it perpetrated by the enemy? Yes, it is. But, the devil being the devil doesn't always work in the way we expect! Often the enemy uses those closest to us - family members, friends, associates in ministry, people we have worked with for many years - and, as a result, we think we have to "make nice" because we don't want to cut people off. The dividing line is here: we can't "make nice" with those around us who serve a false god, or who are not in step with the Spirit, no matter who they are. I am not saying never talk to somebody again, but I am saying that we need to set boundaries because the war is intense - and the devil ain't playin' (as a very wise prophetess I know often says! :-)

The demarcation against those who are true and those who are false will become more apparent - This means that it will be more notable who is true and who isn't...but have we thought about what this means? Everyone thinks it means God should come down from the sky and send a message to us through an angel with a trumpet "People...this is a false leader." Since Jesus told us to beware false leaders and gave us all the signs to identify them, that means those signs will be more obvious, and glaring. It also means that we are responsible if we are taken in by someone who is false. God's leaders need to be mature, or as I used to say when I worked with little kids, "big people." This means all the signs of spiritual maturity as pertains to their calling are present there: they don't preach the same messages over and over again, they aren't just prosperity preachers, declaring cars, houses, and money over people, they have an understanding of the Word (we'll discuss that in a minute), they know how to function as leaders, and they aren't easily taken in by things. As leaders in the five-fold (which is what your leaders should be - not some other concoction of offices or made-up identities, but apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers), they should hold some semblance of their office - in other words, apostles should be apostles, prophets should be prophets, evangelists should be evangelists, pastors should be pastors, and teachers should be teachers. They shouldn't say they are apostles and look like evangelists (and so on). Above all, they should be servants - of God and those they serve. This doesn't mean being a floor-mat, but it also means not acting like a spoiled prince or princess with a ministry and congregation that revolves around and serves their personal whims non-stop.

We need to actually know the Word - I posted a status yesterday that spoke of people who run around with titles declaring this, that, and something else, and they can't even understand a status on FB. In keeping with the current trends of arguments and pride, it's not uncommon for someone to post something on their page and then have what they say edited or corrected by somebody else who thinks they know better than what you said. Now, let's clarify here: it's almost always someone (without fail) who never has a good thing to say on your page. They never come on to 'like' something or 'amen' something, or give a word of encouragement - their purpose is always critical. And, almost always, not only do they try to correct what you wrote, they clearly didn't understand what you said in the first place. So this Apostolic Bishop Evangelist Pastor Rabbi so-and-so, or Chief Apostle so-and-so, or Master Prophet so-and-so, or Super Apostle so-and-so, or whatever they call themselves, can't even understand what someone posts on Facebook, in 2012, in modern language usage, culture, reference, and context - but they want me to think they have some sort of unique or super-spiritual understanding of the Bible? The Bible, remember, was written over 2,000 years ago in a totally different culture, with different idiomatic usages, in different languages from English (and yes, even King James - oh, the shock!), and with different context. This means that in order to study the Word and understand it deeper than words on a page, we need to have not just the Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit's guidance to genuine study of context, history, language, and usage. This is not going to come about as leaders sit online and correct statuses that apparently aren't literal enough for them or they believe require extensive amplification so all their counter-points are met. Stop acting like a bunch of nonsensical, slow Saints and get in the Word so it can transform someone else's life. This is not all about you, and that anointing that matters to you so much right now but not to anyone else (as you are not working to change lives) will still require you pay the $1 to ride the bus.

We need to stop "sucking up" - A lot of people don't like that phrase. I don't have another one to insert there, because that's exactly what we do. When I was in junior high, we had your classic suck up in the class. All the teachers loved her because she was a snitch, said she liked outlining and diagramming sentences (who enjoys doing those things?) and had to be class president in both sixth and eighth grades. I still don't know how she won because not enough of us liked her to vote for her. In those days, I was editor-in-chief of the school paper. One day she came up to me and wanted to do an article about me, and outright told me she was vying for assistant editor. She wasn't getting to be assistant editor. I told her, "How much power can one person have? Stop sucking up!" That's what I want to say soooo bad to sooo many so-called leaders who start acting just like this girl did whenever they get around perceived money or power. People know when you are sucking up. They know what it's about when you do it, too. They'll take advantage of it, but it won't work. Just because someone has money or power doesn't mean they are where it's at. You need to seek to be around people who are where it's at, not people who you think will do something for you. The deepest answers to your problems in ministry do not lie in you going on television or becoming famous. If that's your goal for ministry, then you need to sit down or God will send an angel to sit on you.

This dispensation is not going to be a fun one for those who don't align with it. I know that's not what we want to hear, but it's the truth. There will be points where those of us who do follow it will face opposition, will encounter hardship and trial. This is a difficult shifting point, a shaking up, a change, a truly new experience for Christians who are used to ease and comfort. It's time to see lives transformed. That needs to happen just as much in the church as it does for those out of the church. The sooner we realize that establishing what is right begins with us and our obedience to God, the sooner we can see the revivals we long for, and the souls we desire to see saved, come pouring forth into the church. This is a dispensation of order, of discipling, of structure, and seeing God's grace work to transform even those who may not think they need it. It is our chance, yet again, to get it right. I don't know how long this dispensation will last, or how long within it that we have to get things right - but I do know it is now here...and it's time to step forward...and advance.

"All the days of my warfare and service I will wait, till my change and release shall come." - Job 14:14 (AMP)

(c) 2012 Lee Ann B. Marino. All rights reserved.

Have You Got What It Takes?

“But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. ‘Friend,’ he asked, ‘how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’ The man was speechless. “Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ “For many are invited, but few are chosen.” – Matthew 22:11-14 (NIV)

And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. – Galatians 6:9 (KJV)

At least once per week, I have a discussion with someone similar to the one found below.

Someone: Greetings, Apostle!

Me: Blessings!

Someone: How are you doing?

Me: I am doing fine, thank you.

Someone: That’s great.

Me: Great!

Someone: Where is your church? And how big is it? And where is it located?

Me: I am an apostle. I do not have a church. I am not a pastor. My ministry is located wherever God sends me.

Someone: Oh. God’s called me to be a (fill in ministry here). I’m in training. God’s given me so many gifts. I know He’s going to use me mightily.

Me: I see. That’s wonderful.

Someone: Do you have any suggestions on how I can get started in ministry?

Me: Go and pray and seek God before you ever tell people you are called. Make sure you are chosen.

Then the conversation gets quiet. They didn’t like that answer. If I am “unfriended” by the next day, I will not be surprised. Every now and then I get a message telling me how “unencouraging” what I said was. Hmmm.

I often feel bad for my lack of enthusiasm when somebody tells me they’ve been called to ministry. I admit that, much of the time, I am less than convinced. I can usually tell by the Spirit when someone is genuinely chosen for God’s ministry. Nobody has to tell me. When people come to me and feel like they have to tell me about it, it raises my eyebrow. Maybe they are just excited. Maybe they are just overly enthusiastic. Maybe they are very open to suggestion, and are filled to the brim with words someone spoke to them out of season, or the wrong way, or maybe…just maybe…they aren’t chosen in the way they think. Maybe there are too many ‘maybes,’ and maybe these past fifteen years or so in ministry have taught me more discernment about people’s claims than I’d like to admit.

What I am often discerning in those who are newly called to ministry is naiveté. People who are often first discerning a call to ministry are taken in by the glitz and glamour of ministry and don’t understand the often hard and trying work that goes on behind it. I think we have the misguided notion today that ministry is what happens in a 30-minute television program. We think ministry is a glamorous lifestyle akin to “Christian Hollywood” where everyone has a make-up crew, a television crew, a full house every time they show up in a city to minister, designer shoes, a personal pilot, and a picture-perfect family life. Everybody wants to minister to millions of people, go all over the world, and be a “household word.” We forget that ministry is seldom what it seems like on a television show. In ministry, sacrifices have to be made; time is pinched; finances are often strained to the penny; tensions run high in households; ministers try to pursue God’s call and balance that fine line between the natural and the spiritual; and life is sometimes just as hard as everyone else’s. Travel is a hassle; television ministry is a hassle; writing is often a hassle; publication is a hassle; people don’t understand what you go through as a person, and often don’t even care; event planning is a hassle; and every level of ministry, especially as it grows, has its own unique complications and challenges.

I’m not going to blame television ministers for these unrealistic concepts, no. I blame the modern-day, fantasy-pursuing church for these concepts. We’re the ones who have glorified the concept of media ministry with no consideration to its extensive expense and intricate level of challenge. As a result, we think ministry is the “godly” avenue to stardom. No matter what we may think about television ministers or their teachings, they all paid a price to be where they are. Nobody came to them and dropped a ministry out of the sky on their heads. Many of them worked for years to be where they are. We can judge them for where they are and judge them for the struggles they go through, or we can realize they are just publically going through what many of us have the grace to go through privately. They have had to sacrifice time, relationships, and other pursuits to be where they are. While we may think their lives are desirable, we aren’t looking deeper than the surface.

I don’t want to hear that this note is “negative.” I don’t want to hear a bunch of pie-in-the-sky replies that just make it sound like I don’t have enough faith. The things that are in ministry are what are and accepting reality is a part of accepting truth. It’s an awesome thing to be trusted by God to carry the Gospel, but there are realities of that call that we too often try to pretend just don’t exist. We act like God is just going to take care of all our ministry issues and problems while we go outside and pick daisies in the field. If we truly are called to do any aspect of ministry that functions internationally, we should pass from the idealistic phase of ministry to a more practical understanding of ministry life. This means that, over time, we come to see God in a practical sense, understanding His system of governing and system of empowerment instead of just treating God like He’s got nothing better to do than rain money out of the sky.

Every minister WILL encounter certain struggles. They are universal signs of opposition to God’s chosen ones and, therefore, will be things that every truly chosen minister will experience. Do we persevere through the difficult times? Do we keep going, faithful to what God has called us to do, or do we shift directions every time it gets too hard? Do we endure, or do we faint? Do we trust God when we don’t see answers in the natural, and maybe don’t even perceive them in the spiritual?

So I ask: do you have what it takes?

Don’t make the mistake of thinking God will NOT ask you to do something you don’t want to do. Usually that thing you just don’t want to do because you don’t want to do it will be the very thing God requires of you. And, for the record, He will require it of you over and over again, in different circumstances, until you reach the point where you can do it without whining or complaining AND you do it and learn the lesson God is teaching you from it.

Do you have what it takes?

Can you obey God, even when it hurts? As we walk in the flesh, the pursuit of the Spirit means we die to the flesh. It doesn’t mean we cease to be human, which means a lot of what we go through will hurt. It will mean we lose friends, family members, yes, even people who were once really important to us. It will mean God will put you in places, situations, and circumstances that may be hard for you as a person because they have a greater purpose. You will outgrow people who meant the world to you and who were once the signposts of faith and truth to you. Why? Because not everyone has the same call on their lives and not everyone is growing as they should be in God. If you find a leader, a friend, a family member, a mentor, etc. who keeps growing in the Spirit, you are very blessed, indeed. If not…and at some point you will encounter someone who’s not…

Do you have what it takes?

Can you follow God, even if it means you don’t get rescued from every single situation you find yourself in that’s difficult or unseemly? Can you deal with the sting of being disliked? Betrayed? Can you deal with being excluded from the group? Can you handle being the subject of gossip?

Do you have what it takes?

Can you deal with the gift of discernment in ministry? I’m not just talking about discerning spirits in situations or for casting out, I’m talking about discernment when dealing with others who claim to be in ministry! I’m talking about walking into a room and knowing what everyone in there is thinking – and still having to hold a respectable composure? Can you handle knowing when you are being lied to – and having to be the only one in that room who knows you’re being lied to? Can you handle having the revelations of God that change relationships, interactions, and yes, even the way God’s Word is delivered in groups? Can you handle obeying God when it means disobeying men?

Do you have what it takes?
Can you handle the sting of being different – and pay the price for doing things God’s way versus doing them the way everyone else does them or the way you think they should be done? Can you discern yourself from God, and refrain from pursuing the things you want versus the things that are God’s will for you? Can you stick to God’s course even when everything about it – finances, circumstances, and peripherals – go against everything that the world tells you SHOULD be when you’re in ministry?

Do you have what it takes?

Can you handle living a family life that is less than stellar? Let’s stop pretending that ministers don’t have family issues. Let’s stop pretending that ministers don’t struggle with their parents, siblings, children, husbands, and often, extended family members. Can you handle the attacks that come from those closest to you, and make the choice to walk away from relationships that keep you from God?

Do you have what it takes?

What will you do when you encounter trials? Can you suffer silently – go over in your corner, talk to a confidant, and walk back out to minister to others? What about when you get battle weary and tired? Does that affect your ministry? Do you have to tell everyone about it?

Do you have what it takes?

There’s a reason the Bible tells us that “Many are called, but few are chosen.” (Matthew 22:14) The Bible indicates many will show up where they shouldn’t, inappropriately presented and unprepared. Many people will look over the gifts they have – or the gifts others tell them they have – and think they are something they are not. Even though they pursue a ministry ambition, it never becomes quite what they hope it will be. If someone isn’t chosen for ministry, we need to encourage them as they have been called, and encourage them not to faint where God has called them. If they don’t have what it takes to be in ministry, that’s because they have what it takes to do something that those of us in ministry can’t do. That’s laudable, empowering, and a true Kingdom vision across the board.

As for those of us who are chosen, many pursue things they shouldn’t, because it gets too hard somewhere along the way and nobody encourages them to continue on in perseverance. We are told to encourage each other…but we need to make sure we are encouraging one another unto obedience. There is a reason the Bible tells us that we are known by our fruit, rather than our gifts. There’s more than one way to “faint” in ministry. We think of “fainting” as giving up all together…but there are many ways that we can “give up” in ministry. We can faint by disobedience, by pursuit of our own convenience and way, by distorting God to others, or just living in a place of denial about the realities God attempts to teach us. If we are to remain in this ministry, we need to have what it takes. We need to encourage each other in knowing that fact and encourage each other to pursue and persevere beyond fairy tale notions about ministry. We need to be there for one another when things are difficult out of love, not just because we think they can better our work. We need to be a hand up to help them have what it takes instead of a permanently dead end.

In ministry, it takes a lot more than a winning smile and a good suit to ‘have what it takes.’ It takes a walk with God that reaches outward in divine outreach to others. It takes a lot of study, work, endurance, and hope, despite discouragement. It means loving our ministry neighbor, even if they advance in ministry faster or differently than we do. Above all, it means we obey God…even when it hurts…even when it means we don’t get what we want…and trusting God with such intensity that even if we are never delivered from our issues, our dislikes, or our struggles…we will still serve God, just the way things are. Every one of God’s people throughout history “went through” because “going through” is a part of being chosen. Jesus didn’t get rescued from the cross. The Apostle Paul didn’t get rescued from having to serve prison time. Moses didn’t get rescued from the Israelites. Being chosen means we pay a persevering price to serve God no matter how hard it gets or how much we don’t want to do some part of it. In persevering, we prove that we are in this to “faint not.” Through perseverance, we prove that God is the Author of this ministry – and that through Him, we have what it takes to handle anything asked of Him to proclaim His Gospel worldwide…the Excellency being of God, and not of us.

“Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not.” – 2 Corinthians 4:1 (KJV)

© 2012 Lee Ann B. Marino. All rights reserved.

Earthen Vessels

"But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves." (2 Corinthians 4:7, NASB)

"But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us." (2 Corinthians 4:7, NIV)

“The groans of the dying rise from the city, and the souls of the wounded cry out for help. But God charges no one with wrongdoing." (Job 24:12, NIV)

"Evening, morning and noon I cry out in distress, and He hears my voice." (Psalm 55:17, NIV)

Since the beginning of the year, 2 Corinthians 4:7 keeps creeping its way into my messages. God has had me minister on 2 Corinthians 4:7 about six times now, all with the same basic theme: emphasizing us, as His earthen vessels, with the excellency and the power of God working within us by His Spirit. It is not something we can explain, nor something that makes sense to us by natural means. The principle of 2 Corinthians 4:7 is simple: God works through us - through human beings who are frail, errant at times, deal with sins in their lives, and who, as I often say, "got stuff." Every one of us, as long as we are this side of heaven, will be dealing with issues as long as we are breathing for one reason: if any of us attained perfection, we wouldn't need God anymore.

God keeps bringing me back to this verse for a reason, and it is to address some serious issues going on in the church today that are hurting people. We won't even get into the fact that these issues are causing Christian life to be unappealing to many non-believers and causing otherwise good Christians to fall away from the faith. For now, I want us to look at the complications of the problem and recognize the reason why God works through earthen vessels - and how we can raise this up rather than constantly putting it down.

The modern church has gone through a number of phases. Anyone who studies history can attest to this, but the level of change I am speaking of is more recent and drives home at a very wide audience as opposed to some of the other phases that have come and gone. As I often reiterate, I became a Christian in 1999. For the record, that is not nearly as long as some have been saved, and longer than some others. Even before I became a Christian, I went to a church, the Catholic Church - and believe it or not, God gave me a foundation there. No, they didn't have it all right and no they are most definitely off the mark - but God used the things that were familiar to me to reach out to me just as He did with Abraham and His people of old. Why? Because God uses people. That is the point of "earthen vessels." He used people in that church and in my Catholic school to help get me where I needed to be so that when the time was right, I would reach another earthen vessel who would lead me to where I needed to be in Him - and another and another and another. God has always had a way of getting me to where He needed me to be. I acknowledge and recognize that - and in days gone by, even though we didn't talk about it like that, we understood it more. We honored God's work in people more. We appreciated God working in those who worked in street evangelism, we honored those who brought us to the Lord, we honored the church "mothers" and the women who had honored God and spent years praying for us, walking with us, and teaching us in the Lord. We had a sense of awe at the fact that God worked through His willing vessels.

We also had a different sense of trial and tribulation. We acknowledged that people 'went through.' It wasn't that God was punishing them because they spoke a curse on themselves, but that sometimes things just happen because we live in the world and we have an enemy in this world. When somebody didn't have food, we found them a food bank or we fed them ourselves. When somebody was out of a job, the people in the church shared the information (instead of gossiping about it) and found someone who knew someone who had a brother who was looking to hire someone for a job. When somebody had a problem, we prayed them through it - laid hands on them, prayed for them, encouraged them. One of the first services I ever went to at Living Water Faith Fellowship back in Oneonta, New York in 1999 was an Easter Sunday service. A couple in the church had just experienced an ectopic pregnancy and the woman miscarried. The pastor himself was there with them the night before and the very next day, the couple was in the church to be prayed for and encouraged. Nobody patronized them, told them how to feel, or what they should or shouldn't say - they just stayed there and hugged them, prayed for them, and reached out to them. The entire church extended their hands in prayer and encouragement. And you know what? Nobody that day who was a member of that church felt particularly 'joyful.' They worshipped God, and cried out to Him on behalf of this couple. There was a profound sense of unity as the entire church grieved with them and worked to encourage them. Somehow, some way, we had a way of helping one another through things in a way that didn't seem so offensive or patronizing, because they followed Romans 12:15: "Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn." (NIV)

Today I have this profound sense of patronization in the church. I don't think, as a rule people mean to be that way, but it almost feels like people really don't care what you are going through - or if you are going through at all, for that matter. They just don't want to hear about it. They have their "own" problems. They have their "own" issues God is working within them. They are caught up in their "own" relationships. If they want to know what's going on with you, it's so that they can tell you what to do about it - or tell someone else. Any time you raise an issue, you get a trite little expression. Someone who is tired from caring for a sick one gets sarcastically told, "Well, sister so-and-so, you know that he who doesn't care for his own family is reprobate!" Someone who has problems in their marriage has people trying to give them marriage advice and then faces gossip because they confided in the wrong person. Let's all be real - it's not like these people who we talk to don't have issues! I meet so many people I just want to spit in their face with their sarcastic, little comments. They just say it because they don't want to hear it and they don't want to be bothered. They have taken modern teaching and used it as a vehicle for denial.

We've even taken to ragging on different Bible characters because they don't reflect the concepts that we have today. Take Job, for example. Job didn't need a million little trite sayings, which his friends and his wife gave him. He was going through and he needed people to support him in his going through. Instead he got a lot of busybodies who tried to tell him what he should do. Now the church even plays the role of Job's friends and wife. Was Job not prosperous because he lost everything? Did God not "favor" him because he had 40-years of trial? If you read the book of Job, you see that all this modern nonsense about Job is unfounded. Job had an experience he did not understand and he talked about it. He whined at times. He cried out to God. And, you know what? God called back to him. Job had a 40-year dialogue with God in his state of existential angst. He cried to God, and God answered him. He built him up in wisdom and in truth. He learned the deeper depths of wisdom and human experience. In that 40-year dialogue, Job received prosperity that no one could take away: His soul prospered and maybe it prospered in a way that it couldn't have had he had all of his stuff. Job had a prosperity and understanding of the meaning of life that nothing and nobody could buy. Some of you with all your stuff rag on Job who prayed for 40 years. You can't pray five minutes. Who’s the one who isn't prosperous now? That car, that money won't get you into heaven!

The modern church has put so much emphasis on, as Prophetess Yolanda Davis-Greggs says, "majoring in minors" that we are forgetting the essential principle of being an earthen vessel - of being the one, that power of one, who God may use of His excellency. We are so preoccupied with what words we use, being "positive," distorting the passage that says "call the things that be not as though they are" (this is about prophecy y'all, NOT about pretending you don't actually have a problem that you do), and expecting people to not have issues that we are forgetting that people are human. There's a fine line between positively confessing this, that, and something else and total denial about one's situation. Because we don't want to reach out to the world, we are expecting people to cease being human. We deny the element of existential angst within the human experience that causes a person to cry out to God - the experience that causes us to "wrestle with God" and receive His revelation - and, in turn, bring about a state of reasoned understanding to help us walk our life of faith in a deeper way. Being in God should help us understand things more, not help us pursue a state of denial. the result of such is the compounding of problems upon problems and never finding an answer to issues. No wonder we are not dwelling in a victorious church! In the pursuit of not hearing the truth about ourselves, we are not hearing or dealing with what God wants to reveal to us.

I am all for watching what we say and speaking in agreement with God. I am also very aware that speaking in agreement with God also means acceptance - accepting the truth about us, our situations, and our realities. We need to seek God in our state of existential angst - voicing the truth, voicing the issues we have - and finding answers beyond triteness and little sayings that diminish God's Word to a slogan for a T-shirt. We need to stop making everything about what we confess, think, and perceive and start doing things to help one another out again. The church needs to be what people NEED, not what people SAY. We need to be people who are worthy of confidence, know when to give a hug instead of a Bible verse, know when a listening ear is more relevant than pretending something doesn't exist, and recognize that we need to be deeper than just being satisfied with God because we think He sent us a car, a house, or a bigger paycheck. I believe God prospers His people and blesses His own as a part of His economy, but I do not believe that prosperity is measured in how much 'stuff' we have. The church needs to move from this literal materialism and spiritual denial and start finding a purpose beyond correcting word usage (not the same as checking spelling and grammar - before someone uses this in defense of poor language usage) and telling people the way they should think or view situations. We need to be a people who stop confessing and talking...and start doing...so we can finally walk in AND receive the fullness of all God has for us.

We need to glean hope from history, hope from the Bible (in people such as Vashti, Job, Moses, Noah, the woman at the well, and others too numerous to mention), hope from God's principles of earthen vessels. If I look at my own life, some of the people God used most powerfully were people with incredible problems. My seventh grade English teacher, a powerful influence, had an eating disorder and severe relationship issues. The woman who led a Vacation Bible School I attended at the Presbyterian Church (who once upon a time was so cool) overate to the point of nearly being unable to walk or move. The woman who brought me to the Lord couldn't move past the death of her granddaughter, which at that time, had occurred almost seven years earlier. My former apostle battled mental illness, moodiness, and bipolar disorder. One of the first women who gave me a powerful word about my ministry lived a most difficult life, stopped coming to church at one point, and lost her husband only a few years later. I've had people from every varied theological background reach out and give me a message - Catholic, Orthodox, Pentecostal, Seventh-Day Adventist, Mormon, Methodist, Presbyterian, Mennonite, Jewish, New Age, Baptist, Lutheran, Buddhist, Hindu, atheists, agnostics, even some in off-color cults spoke something that God wanted me to hear. Whoever they were, whether they understood God or not, whether they knew God or not, served to speak something to me that was from Him - and whoever they were is who they were, and so be it. They prove that God works through whoever, whomever, whenever He will to make His point. Maybe today I don't see them as I once did, maybe today I wouldn't be their friend or associate, maybe today I would question things I saw in them, but I can't deny that God worked through them to benefit me - and if me, someone else as well - despite the problems, issues, place in their relationship with God (if some of them even had one) and areas of life that were questionable that they had. This is not about being saved or unsaved - it's about the fact that God can use whomever He wants, whenever, to make His point in our lives - and that should be so much more true among those who claim to be Spirit-filled than those who are not. If we are going to reach this point, we need to get off our moral and verbal high horses and start ministering (that word ministering meaning serving) to others. People throughout history had the same issues, temptations, and problems that we all have today. They struggled with infidelity, adultery, addictions, alcoholism, gossip, temptations, greed, poverty, unemployment, divorce, heartbreak, haywire children, unsaved loved ones, and every other issue we battle today. With their same issues, they looked to God, they found answers and hope, sought forgiveness, and sought something out that was deeper than they were. Denial, specific word usage, and positive thinking were not going to airlift them out of their circumstances - but God could work and empower them to overcome. We need to be a church of overcomers: a church of earthen vessels, full of the Holy Spirit and empowered to overcome rather than degrade or deny. It is my prayer that we can restore the humanity in the church and see God's principle of "earthen vessels" at work in you, in me...in all of us, especially as we continue to move forward in these last days. We need to stop focusing so much on the vessel and start focusing on that excellency of God at work in them. God works through people who don't always say the right things, feel the right way, have the best days imaginable, face every moment with joy and confidence, or even through people who get it right all of the time. Let God use you. Let the Holy Spirit shine through you and make that difference in someone's life today, right now...that the excellency may be of God...in us, as flawed human beings...and not of us.

"People know this world is a wreck
We're sick and tired of being politically correct
I see through it now but I didn't at first
The hypocrites made it worse and worse
Lookin' down their noses at what people say
These are just words and words are okay
It's what you do and not what you say
If you're not part of the future then get out of the way"
- John Mellencamp and India Arie, "Peaceful World"

(c) 2012 Lee Ann B. Marino. All rights reserved.