Rod Dreher in The American Conservative wrote about how the demon inhabiting the Catholic episcopate has now been revealed and will continue to be revealed. He likens this to the second stage of an exorcism. The first stage was when the demon denied being present. Well, with the McCarrick scandal, the Pennsylvania Grand Jury report, the Vigano letter, and various sordid revelations including that now six states are conducting investigations, the light is definitely exposing. Thanks be to God and Our Lady.
I am reminded of the need for fasting and prayer, penance and giving. This is a time for purity and sacrifice. Catholics must pray and work to expose this evil committed by leadership covering for predator priests, promoting sexually immoral bishops, and actively working against church doctrines, undermining the Church they are called to protect.
As I was doing chores this morning, thinking about all that has come to light and thinking about Dreher's article, I had an image of the Theoden scene from Lord of the Rings when Gandalf exorcises the evil of Saruman from him and frees him. Here we have a King, a leader, an authority entrusted with ruling, who has lost his way and is under the sway of the evil one, actively working against all that is good. Gandalf as a type of prophet, saint, power of the Holy Spirit/Angelic hosts attacks that evil in Theoden and frees him. How evil when Theoden at first mocks Gandalf and laughs at him, stating that Gandalf has no power. Gandalf throws off his grey robes and reveals his new white robes and new power. This reminds me of holiness, prayer, fasting, giving and penance. Perhaps the devil has been hiding, working in the shadows. Now that he is exposed as hiding in the hierarchy he sits there and laughs knowing how complacent the laity and priests have been. Will we the Church increase our prayer, fasting and penances to do battle in the heavenlies to have the evil working in the episcopate exposed, broken, and expelled? I hope so. Watch the LOTR scene and read Dreher's article. What do you think about their connection? Perhaps the name of Theoden is a poetic/prophetic message. Theo-den. Den of theology. The Magisterium.
With all the push for being seeker sensitive and becoming more palatable to unchurched people, denominations and yes, Catholic Churches have toned down rhetoric on divine justice and judgment for kinder messages more suitable to our social justice warrior climate.
I honestly find this lacking. I grew up going to church, and honestly, I knew about the mercy and love of God, and I kept sinning. I had no fear of the Lord. I credit an experience of the the Fear of the Lord with converting me to take my faith seriously. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
I recommend every Christian to start listening to, memorizing, meditating on, and singing the great song from the 600's, one of my favs, the Dies Irae. Oh the words are so good. They put every hymn and contemporary worship song to shame. It is dreadfully holy. As a pop culture side note, its melody is used in so many movies today from Star Wars, The Lion King, The Shining, It's a Wonderful Life, heck, the marching band at the high school I taught at last year used the melody in their half-time show.
Pop Culture Dies Irae:
The actual chanted song:
Mozart twist on the song:
The Shining Opening Score:
We need the reverence and terror of the greatness of God in our religion again. The fear of the Lord is beautiful and helps us live holy. It's that masculine, "buck up boy or else!"
Anyhow, how does this fear of the Lord relate to the Eucharist? I've been meaning to write this or Youtube it for a while. And this last Sunday, the Sunday after the Pennsylvania Grand Jury report was released, I was in despair and repentance during mass. I wanted God to break in and shake out the perpetrators, to purify his church. It bothered me thinking about how many priests or bishops could be celebrating mass that morning after abusing or raping someone and then taking the Eucharist without repentance. It bothered me for the Lord's body to be desecrated and sacrilegiously consumed by those in some of the worst mortal sin, and priests none the less.
Then I remembered the fear of the Lord and the warning of judgment spoken about concerning the Eucharist. One of the proofs that the Eucharist is the Real Presence is St. Paul's warning in 1 Corinthians 11 concerning the Lord's Supper. He states that those who receive the Lord's supper in an unworthy manner face judgement, some having died or gotten sick. We definitely don't preach that in homilies. What will the visitors think? Not many priests would believe that warning anyways, its too supernatural and stuff.
1 Cor. 11:27-30
"27 So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. 28 Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup. 29 For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves. 30 That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep." Fallen asleep means died. No one in mortal sin is suppose to take the Eucharist. That rule is there for your own good, not to just be nitpicky.
As I sat in mass praying for the scandalized church, thinking about the bishops who shuffled predator priests around, and thinking about predator priests behind altars celebrating mass, hiding their criminal natures while they wear clerical robes, I wanted justice. I prayed for God to purify his church. Of course, it is the Lord who judges and purifies. I would be too fickle, weak, and temperamental in any judgement or assessment, but God, he knows the heart. He can convict. He can judge. He can purify.
I prayed that all the bishops and priests who were receiving the Eucharist in mortal sin, hiding abuses in their diocese, would face conviction of the Holy Spirit, a wake up call, a turning from sin and call to transforming holiness.
Many don't like to think about the judgement of God, but to me it is just as important as the love of God. If God loves unconditionally, he must unconditionally hate the things that destroy the object of his love. True love necessitates a hatred of the things that hurt the beloved. How holy must the Eucharist be, Jesus himself, if people can die from partaking in an unworthy manner? Only a few times in Scripture have people died from mistreating the holy. When someone approached the Holy of Holies inappropriately (Numbers 16), when Uzzah touched the ark of the covenant trying to stabilize it and dropped dead (2 Sam 6:1-7), when the Philistines captured the ark and a plague of tumors broke out in their city (1 Sam 5), when Ananias and Saphira lied to the Holy Spirit and Peter about the money from their home sale and dropped dead (Acts 5:1-11). This is the kind of power the Eucharist also has. We must repent before partaking of it. God is merciful and patient. Yet I pray for repentance of sin in myself and the Church before taking the Eucharist, or at least, if evil people take the Eucharist, may they face the kindness of God to shake them up and lead them to repentance and salvation at the end of their life. The Eucharist, Jesus, God himself, second person of the Trinity, purify and cleanse your Church. Amen. So, learn the Dies Irae. Why isn't it in our Hymnals? It was dictated by the Holy Spirit to Pope St. Gregory the Great.
Revere the Eucharist. Remember its foundation is the Passover meal, memorial of the day the Israel escaped the Angel of Death and found salvation.
Dies Irae/Day of Wrath
DIES irae, dies illa,
solvet saeculum in favilla,
teste David cum Sibylla.
Day of wrath and doom impending,
David’s word with Sibyl’s blending,
Heaven and earth in ashes ending.
Quantus tremor est futurus,
quando iudex est venturus,
cuncta stricte discussurus!
O what fear man’s bosom rendeth,
When from heaven the Judge descendeth,
On whose sentence all dependeth.
Tuba mirum spargens sonum
per sepulcra regionum,
coget omnes ante thronum.
Wondrous sound the trumpet flingeth,
Through earth’s sepulchers it ringeth,
All before the throne it bringeth.
Mors stupebit et natura,
cum resurget creatura,
iudicanti responsura.
Death is struck, and nature quaking,
All creation is awaking,
To its Judge an answer making.
Liber scriptus proferetur,
in quo totum continetur,
unde mundus iudicetur.
Lo, the book exactly worded,
Wherein all hath been recorded,
Thence shall judgment be awarded.
Iudex ergo cum sedebit,
quidquid latet apparebit:
nil inultum remanebit.
When the Judge His seat attaineth,
And each hidden deed arraigneth,
Nothing unavenged remaineth.
Quid sum miser tunc dicturus?
quem patronum rogaturus?
cum vix iustus sit securus.
What shall I, frail man, be pleading?
Who for me be interceding
When the just are mercy needing?
Rex tremendae maiestatis,
qui salvandos salvas gratis,
salva me, fons pietatis.
King of majesty tremendous,
Who dost free salvation send us,
Fount of pity, then befriend us.
Recordare Iesu pie,
quod sum causa tuae viae:
ne me perdas illa die.
Think, kind Jesus, my salvation
Caused Thy wondrous Incarnation,
Leave me not to reprobation.
Quarens me, sedisti lassus:
redemisti crucem passus:
tantus labor non sit cassus.
Faint and weary Thou hast sought me,
On the Cross of suffering bought me,
Shall such grace be vainly brought me?
Iuste iudex ultionis,
donum fac remissionis,
ante diem rationis.
Righteous Judge, for sin’s pollution
Grant Thy gift of absolution,
Ere that day of retribution.
Ingemisco, tamquam reus:
culpa rubet vultus meus:
supplicanti parce Deus.
Guilty now I pour my moaning,
All my shame with anguish owning,
Spare, O God, Thy suppliant groaning.
Qui Mariam absolvisti,
et latronem exaudisti,
mihi quoque spem dedisti.
Through the sinful woman shriven,
Through the dying thief forgiven,
Thou to me a hope hast given.
Preces meae non sunt dignae:
sed tu bonus fac benigne,
ne perenni cremer igne.
Worthless are my prayers and sighing,
Yet, good Lord, in grace complying,
Rescue me from fires undying.
Inter oves locum praesta,
et ab haedis me sequestra,
statuens in parte dextera.
With Thy sheep a place provide me,
From the goats afar divide me,
To Thy right hand do Thou guide me.
Confutatis maledictis,
flammis acribus addictis.
voca me cum benedictis.
When the wicked are confounded,
Doomed to flames of woe unbounded,
Call me with Thy Saints surrounded.
Oro supplex et acclinis,
cor contritum quasi cinis:
gere curam mei finis.
Low I kneel with heart’s submission,
See, like ashes, my contrition,
Help me in my last condition.
Lacrimosa dies illa,
qua resurget ex favilla.
iudicandus homo reus:
huic ergo parce Deus.
Ah! That day of tears and mourning,
From the dust of earth returning,
Man for judgment must prepare him,
Spare, O God, in mercy spare him.
Pie Iesu Domine,
dona eis requiem. Amen.
Lord, all-pitying, Jesus blest,
Grant them Thine eternal rest. Amen.
Sunday, April 02, 2017
Don't all churches have the same authority based on what the Bible says? Yes and no. Most churches are started based on preaching and following the Bible. The Catholic Church was started by Jesus upon Peter and the apostles. The Catholic Church wasn't created by following Scripture, the Catholic Church wrote, selected and canonized the Scriptures. The Catholic Church came first, out of her came the New Testament.
I currently attend both Mass at 8am and then an Assembly of God church at 10:45am on Sundays. I attend the AG church because my wife identifies with that Church as do two of my four kids. Well a third kid likes the friends and fun there too even though she is baptized Catholic, attends CCE and can't wait for First Communion this year. Anyhow, today during praise and worship, at the AG church I just clasped my RSV New Testament with my rosary inside dangling out and cried out quietly from my heart for mercy, repeatedly, mercy for myself but also for the church. Mercy for those around me.
I realize that I have no hope of bringing people to unity in God's church. Minds are closed and unmotivated to care or even understand. Unless Christ by the Holy Spirit brings down people guarded minds to come back to Catholic faith, we are powerless. We must cry out for mercy, repeatedly. To suffer and do penance for a response. Kyrie Eleison, Christe Eleison, Kyrie Eleison! Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on us sinners.
Will you join in prayer, say a rosary, vocalize or contemplate silently the wounded divided body of Christ, the Church? Cry out for mercy. I cry out for mercy. We are hopeless to bring people to Catholic faith unless God does it. Will you pray? 500 years of division in the Church is enough.
The Dufflepuds are servants of the wizard Coriakin in the C.S. Lewis book Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Coriakin is actually a benevolent teacher, but out of fear they rebel against him. They later read an invisibility spell over themselves because they hate their own appearance.
I couldn't help but to see a parrallel in these characters with certain types of Christians. As the Dufflepuds view their master as an evil tyrant, many Christians view the Pope similarly. No matter how much Pope Francis tries to reach out in kindness, these Protestant Christians will not be convinced. After centuries of Catholic misinformation, distrust of the Pope is deep seated. Also, the Dufflepuds have only one foot to stand on. This reminds me of the practice of Sola Scriptura, Bible-Alone. Whereas Catholics stand on Sacred Tradition, Sacred Scripture as protected by the Magisterium, many Christians stand only on the Bible. This practice leads many Christians to differing interpretations of Scripture and church splits.
Will Bible-Only Christians who distrust the Pope ever stop fearing the bishop of Rome as the Dufflepuds feared the good wizard Coriakin in Prince Caspian, or will they continue to hop with one foot.
As we approach the 500 year anniversary of Luther posting his 95 thesis on the doors of Wittenberg Church there are some things we should consider. Isn't 500 years enough protest? Has the protest worked? Is the church stronger now that it has been splintered and divided into thousands of denominations?
Personally, I think the witness of Christian truth suffers when the churches are speaking contradictory things to our world. When the church is divided the enemy wins.
I want to invite my Charismatic brothers and sisters who are not Catholic to intensely consider coming home. Most Charismatic Christians I know do not think they are protesting the Catholic church and believe themselves to just be Christian. I would venture to say that a Christianity not rooted in Catholic past is wildly tainted by the modern spirit and philosophy. It is nearly impossible to figure out what is American culture, and what is Holy Spirit truth.
Put aside the conspiracy theories and misinformation you have heard about the Catholic Church. You know what I'm talking about, things like, the Pope is the Anti-christ, the Catholic Church is the Whore of Babylon, mother of Harlots, etc. These lies are unashamedly taught by other denominations when you study their theology. Enough is enough, the heart of Christ for unity demands you stop being complacent and accepting of division. Christ established the Catholic Church on the Apostles in the Upper room in 33 AD. Study your misconceptions away.
Another place is Catholic Answers. Just type in your wildest accusation about the Catholic Church and read the answer/rebuttal.
I believe what Cardinal Newman, a convert from Anglicanism said:
I also believe what Bishop Fulton Sheen said:
Why stay out of the Catholic Church my Charismatic Christian friends? The Catholic Church embraces Charismatic phenomenon like tongues, praise and worship, etc. It also respects the Latin Mass. It is a universal church that has scholars, educated, uneducated, laborers, rich, and poor from every culture, the contemplative and quiet to the boisterous. They all find a home in the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church is also full of signs and wonders. Never have signs and wonders stopped in the Catholic Church. Some see Pentecostalism as a new beginning to Supernatural ministry after the spirit of the Enlightenment quenched the supernatural teaching in churches, but the Catholic Church never gave in to Enlightenment thinking like Protestant churches did. The Catholic Church is supernatural and yet also full of reason and respect for science. Stop the protest and come home. Don't be complacent. Desire unity, study, pray and come home. 500 years is enough. You won't be sorry you did. Wait until you encounter Jesus in the Eucharist, the blessed Sacrament.
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.
I sometimes consider if Christ allowed the Protestant splintering to happen much as he allowed the division of Israel in to the Northern and Southern kingdoms due to the sin of David and Solomon. Northern Israel split away and created their two golden calves to worship so that they wouldn't have to follow the Southern Kingdom of Judah. Judah had committed sins and perhaps God allowed the splintering, but the Northern kingdom then entered into graver sin with its calves once they broke away from the true worship in the Southern kingdom God had established. Perhaps more harm, heresy and confusion has come from the Reformation than good even though there were issues in the Catholic Church that needed correcting. Come home and help reform the Church, don't leave Peter because of Judas.
Keith and Iwona Major, two ecumenical reverts to Catholicism, are stirring up change in the body of Christ. This past December 2015, they spearheaded at ecumenical Catholic Track at the charismatic Onething Conference in Kansas City. Their apostolate/ministry is called MajorChange. If you like what they are doing, please make a donation to their work.
Here is one of the sessions where Mike Bickle director of The International House of Prayer came and shared a story on stage.
Watch all the recorded Catholic sessions at this link.
http://majorchange.org/onething/
Catholics attending could participate in Catholic teaching and praise and worship in the mornings and join the main conference in the evening.
A second major event that MajorChange mobilized Catholic ecumenical involvement for was the Azusa Now event in California. Lou Engle, director of The Call, lead the event.
Can the charismatic movement be used by God to bring unity to the body of Christ? It's interesting that Jesus in John 17 prayed for unity in the Church yet some Christians today are quick to label any movement towards reconciliation and unity in the body of Christ as the work of AntiChrist and an attempt to bring about a one world religion. What do you think? Should the church be reconciled and come together or would that be moving the world towards a demonic one world religion?
Modern man is asked by the zeitgeist of the times to live life open-minded and accepting of multiple possible world views and perspectives. In today's pluralistic culture of the West, to believe that there is one correct view on life and morals is considered closed-minded. Relativism in the West opens our minds to multiple simultaneous and contradicting truths. Multiple perspectives on life and truth are valued even if contradicting. This type of mindset can be confusing, but confusion is the home of the modern mind. Instead of confusion one can call it possibility, potential, freedom. In this state though, our perspective on life is much like this painting by Picasso, The Poet. Its hard to know what we are looking at, but one is supposed to be ok with that and find the beauty in ambiguity. This is the mind of modern man, he doesn't know what we are or where we are going but isn't that kind of pretty in itself, just the weird wonder of it? Concrete meaning and definite truths are blurred and blended. What is truth? What is man? What is God? What is reality?
Cubism paints reality from multiple perspectives at once, after all one perspective can't be right. All perspectives at once are true even if this leads to no perspective. This type of painting can be a metaphor for the mental state of how reality appears to the modern man who is open to all-truths since no truth is absolutely true to everyone. Being open to all-truths, even contradictory truths is like having no truth.
Representational art traditionally has one viewpoint. Traditionally societies have had a majority viewpoint. Art tended to have meaning and represented real things and ideas. As in cubism, the modern liberal mind tends to shun a single narrative of truth unless that narrative is that there is no one truth. Ambiguity, open-mindedness, pluralism, "tolerance", is the ideal. I think that is why modern art is so ambiguous and hard to understand. Modern Western society thinks life should be hard to understand, at least a life with meaning. It tends to say that each person makes his or her own personal meaning and no one narrative encompasses all as true.
Then we have abstract expressionism. This type of art seems to promote the idea that meaning is not important in life, only self-expression and freedom to do whatever you feel. The need to communicate ideas and connect to others in a rational way is not important. What seems to be encouraged is the expression of the self at the expense of a shared experience with others with actual understood meaning. Can you think of any people in your life that live this way?
Am I reading to much into art and what its style promotes or can you see that values of a society materialized in the artworks it creates?
The Coming Home Network featured my story on their June 2015 issue. The Coming Home Network has been a tremendous resource of encouragement on this journey.
I wrote in the past about my desire to develop and explore a Pentecostal art aesthetic, a form of principles that express the purpose and state of being of art created in a "Spirit-filled" way. What I meant by Pentecostal was that this art would have a supernatural quality capable of the miraculous and the revelatory, that the artist him/herself would intentionally in a mystical and prayerful way submit to the leadings of the Holy Spirit with the intent that he/she would become a conduit for God's work and that the resulting artwork would be imbued with a supernatural grace to touch the viewer. Now that I'm Catholic, I believe the word I was looking for was that this art would be "Sacramental", a physical reality that conveys grace to us here on earth.
Looking at the world now through Catholic "goggles", I see that the artwork I was seeking to define is very Catholic. For example, the Catholic mind has accepted the history of religious art/icons that were created in grace by artist and that these icons in many places and times have played a part in supernatural occurrences and protection.
As a Pentecostal, I had been impressed when I heard a story of a woman in California associated with the Jesus Culture movement and Bill Johnson's Church in Redding, CA, who had been healed of blindness when she had walked past a painting created by a prayerful Charismatic. I wanted to see more of this physical creative art releasing the supernatural. I wanted to explore and define this phenomenon of art and the supernatural. This issue has long been a part of Catholic Church history. This is very much the historic Catholic understanding of the arts. Why was I trying to recreate the wheel as though it was a new phenomenon?
For one example of a supernatural work of grace being associated with an artwork, read about the Black Madonna of Czestochowa. There are many more examples of such occurrences, they may just not fit in with typical Protestant theology. A picture of Mary or a Saint releasing a miracle, well I would just have assumed it was demonic to lead the world into idolatry of the art object and away from true Protestant theology. One has to deal with the anti-Catholic mindset to see with clarity the beauty of grace working through art, or else one will overlook these historic occurrences as demonic and only look to the modern occurrences of miracles associated with art created by Protestants that fit Protestant theology, and like I was, will be left thinking this is a new phenomenon yet to be explored.
A warning to the Charismatic artists, or Prophetic Artists as we used to call each other. Be careful in your journey to see grace work through physical artworks because you are moving into a theology of Sacraments and Sacramentals that is very close to a Catholic understanding of matter and grace. Protestants have tended historically to view an either/or, Grace vs. Matter conflict, and Catholics a Grace and Matter relationship of Grace perfecting matter. Pentecostals may believe that the Holy Spirit may work through anointing oil or a handkerchief that has been prayed over, but has to stretch their minds to believe in God working through a man made art object.
I look forward to exploring this topic more in depth and studying miracles associated with and around art objects.
What are stories of God supernaturally working through art that you have heard of?
Something cool about being Catholic is being able to travel the country and attend any Mass and know the reading for the day and the liturgy ahead of time. Each church has its charm and beauty, but the overall liturgy is the same.
Here are some photos of parishes I visited for Mass.
St. Edward's in Little Rock, Arkansas.
This sculpture of Purgatory was at St. Edward's in Little Rock.
St. Andrew's in Roanoke, Virginia.
St. Catherine of Sienna in Wake Forest, North Carolina.
I still love my little Parish of Saint Mary's though.
Oh, look at some of the saint statues at St. Catherine of Sienna's.
St. Peter of Verona.
Not a statue but a beautiful mosaic of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
I wanted to share an informative blog of a woman who is trying to honesty investigate historic Christianity and the claims of the Catholic Church. She is trying to remain neutral since she has come to the point of realizing she doesn't feel Protestant anymore. I recommend reading her series.
I'm working on developing a Charismatic Theological Aesthetic. What is that? Sometimes Pentecostal/Charismatics are stereotyped as those who are blindly emotional in their beliefs, or those who base all on experience and not on clear study of Biblical principles. Theological Aesthetics are the study of beauty and art from a Christian and Biblical viewpoint. If one wants to understand the discussion about this topic, one must go back throughout history to the early church, no, even further back to Hebrew culture and follow the discussion about how God's people relate to the arts and consider what beauty is.
Many great discussions and writing have occured over history on this topic, some for, some against art in church and worship, but because Pentecostal and Charismatic theology is so new, 1900's, there has not been much time to develop this theme, and I think it is time.
What makes a charismatic theological aesthetics different from previous discussions about the issue of Christianity and the Arts? There is a particular interest and emphasis on the fact that the Holy Spirit lives inside believers powerfully and seeks to express glory to God and will use supernatural manifestations to get the witness out. The discussion has to do with creatives, musicians, dancers, singers, visual artists, poets, actors, ect., desiring to be filled with the creativity of God and supernatural expression of God. These creatives then, with the enabling of the Spirit's power, seek to give worship to God through the arts as well as release prophetic declaration and expression to the community. This will take skill in whatever artform, as well as submission, humility, hunger and faith.
The Charismatic theological aesthetic will encorporate much of what has been said before on these issues but will also include a strong emphasis on the power of God miraculously working through the artists as prophetic messengers. I am not alone in feeling that the Holy Spirit is emphasising the arts in this season. Below is Kelly Korsman painting and worshiping. This is a new era with much wilderness to explore. There is no limit to our infinite God's creativity and mystery.
The Prophetic Journey of those Who Obey God’s Voice: Facing the Crosses on Our Journey
A revelation about the cross hit me today as I spoke to my friend Paul H. on the phone. The revelation outlines the prophetic process by which true followers of the voice of God develop. Paul told me about the great disappointment he felt when his church plant effort failed, and how he questioned God. He was in this slump for a few weeks until he got his guitar out and worshiped and prayed for a breakthrough. He got the breakthrough words of encouragement and a few days later circumstances began to turn around when he was offered a ministry opportunity in the same city and given a home to run it in.
The revelation came as I spoke to him about his intense prayer time being a type of Gethsemane experience.
Every follower of Christ who truly hears his voice and obeys will come to certain crisis moments when everything goes wrong. This is normal. This is actually part of the cross. I hope this message will give you hope to see the resurrection on the other side of each crisis.
The follower of Christ’s voice will walk in these steps.
1. Pressing in to know God and hear his voice by the Holy Spirit.
2. God advances his kingdom by asking you to do something impossible and uncomfortable.
3. With faith the believer advances and jumps in to the journey...what faithfulness and giving.
4. Things appear to go wrong. Friends leave, people get upset with you, you are ridiculed and mocked and questioned, perhaps lied about.
At this point is where people get lost. Most will retreat in shame and confusion. Did I really hear God? Did I do something wrong? Is God mad at me? Do I really believe any of what I’ve been saying? These questions and others like them grip us and if we don’t follow the pattern of Jesus, we can retreat and hide and stop the journey of Glory.
The right response to a crisis moment is the example given by Jesus. Go to Gethsemane. What I mean is grab your closest friends and press into prayer like nobody's business. If your friends fail you then do it alone. Pray the mess out of it. Jesus prayed until he sweat blood. You must pray intensely into the crisis moment. You will more than likely want to get out of the crisis but you are to say “not my will but yours be done.” God will strengthen you to walk forward. The crisis hurts, sometimes extremely bad. But keep believing because the resurrection will come if you go through with it even in the pain and loneliness.
So the fifth step is:
5. Pray intensely with friends or alone.
6. Follow through with God’s directives and wait even when it hurts and appears to fail.
7. Wait for your resurrection with greater glory.
These seven steps are to happen to believers several times in their journey in life. We must expect this pattern, recognize it and have hope that we will see the resurrection on the other side of the pain.
Joseph is a picture of this journey and also of Jesus. He was faithful and each time he was thrown down was a cross/crisis moment. He stayed faithful and received the resurrected glory afterwards each time. Finally, he left the dungeon and ruled Egypt. This is a picture of Christ leaving the grave and ruling the world systems (Egypt). This is the pattern.
Learn to love it and expect it. Face each crisis with anticipation of glory after the death and pain.
Take comfort in these facts:
1. God will reward your faithfulness. 2. There is a reason for the pain. 3. The glory will eclipse the agony. 4. This season of pain will end and you will come out in glory afterwards probably with scars.
When things go wrong, its normal. It has meaning. You are conflicting with the world system. If you go forward and allow yourself to “die”, you will accomplish the work, the father will “resurrect” you and the kingdom of God will grow. If we fear, stop, doubt and hide, it doesn’t. God will reward those who are faithful and go forward in their crisis moments. These are the crosses that you carry. Carry them with pride and you will see the glory after each one.
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