Dear Worship

I've been discussing with a friend lately why some Christians claim to hear things from the Holy Spirit that don't align with scripture. Are different people hearing different things? Also, why do some believers read His Word, but they don't hear anything from the Spirit? If it's the same Spirit speaking to all of us, how come some churches are all about the spirit with very little scripture, and other churches are all about scripture, and very little spirit?

My initial answer is sin. Sin makes us imperfect humans, so also imperfect Christians. BUT I felt there had to be more to it.

The deeper answer showed up for me in John 4:21-24. This is in the story of the Samaritan woman at the well with Jesus. You can read the whole passage here, but for the sake of this post, I am jumping in after she asks him why the Jews insist that Jerusalem is the only place of worship, yet the Samaritans claim it's at their mountain. Her question actually reminded me of different churches today, each thinking they have it right. This is His reply to her:

Jesus replied, “Believe me, dear woman, the time is coming when it will no longer matter whether you worship the Father on this mountain or in Jerusalem. ²² You Samaritans know very little about the one you worship, while we Jews know all about him, for salvation comes through the Jews. ²³ But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way. ²⁴ For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.” (NLT)

Boom! This came ALIVE to me. We cannot worship God in just ONE way, ex: Holy Spirit driven, or Bible driven. It MUST BE BOTH. Spirit AND Truth. Holy Spirit AND Bible. 

So as you evaluate your walk with the Lord (and even evaluate your church), are you worshiping the Father in spirit and in truth? Does your church teach/worship/serve/pray in spirit and truth? Spirit-filled but Bible backed?

A good question to ask yourself: Do you tend to lean on "the feels" without confirming it in His Word? 

Or are you the type who knows scripture, and always goes to the Word, but you don't actually know how to hear the Spirit? 

Jesus tells us it MUST be both. Spirit without truth (God's Word) isn't His Spirit. And truth without Spirit, isn't the whole truth, it's just information that you may or may not be getting right. The Spirit is what clarifies scripture to us, reveals what it is really saying, behind just the general knowledge. (John 14:26) We need the Spirit just as much as we need the truth, and vice versa.

Also, when Jesus says we are to "worship" in spirit and in truth, He's not just talking about singing praise at church. He's talking about your relationship with God. How you talk to Him, praise Him, listen to Him, obey Him, serve Him, love Him, learn about Him by yourself and with others, etc. ALL of that is how we worship our Father. It must be done in spirit and in truth.

So now the question for those of you in the spirit camp, how do you worship in truth? The answer: read God's Word DAILY. Don't just depend on worship music or feel good devotionals. You need to be IN HIS WORD, communing with Him and letting the Spirit teach you truth.

For those of you in the truth camp, how do you start tuning into the Spirit as you worship? For starters, I would practice being still in His presence. Open your Bible, but before reading it, ask His Spirit to awaken your senses to Him. Spend some time being still before the Lord, welcoming His presence. You can even turn your palms up, letting Him know that you are open to His Spirit, and ready to receive what He wants to teach you in His Word. Praise Him for everything you have to be thankful for, thank Him for your trials, and then read where He guides you. Bible time isn't about you having knowledge, it's about the Spirit teaching you truth. Let Him guide you.

Take a look at what Jesus prayed for us in John 17:20-23:

 “I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me through their message. ²¹ I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me.
²² “I have given them the glory you gave me, so they may be one as we are one. ²³ I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me." (NLT)


 Believers, how we worship is not just about us and our walk with the Lord. When we worship Him in spirit and in truth, it shows the world WHO we belong to, and how much He LOVES! This is bigger than us, and we need to stop with the arguing and division, and start being ONE for His glory. The way we can do it is by following His command to worship our Father in spirit and in truth. 

May God bless us and refresh this land with His Spirit as we move forward as one!

To the Hurting Wife

Sweet friend, 
My heart is heavy over the pain you've endured. The news of your husband's unfaithfulness and your decision to divorce is not only a blow to
your family, but to your spiritual family as well. We mourn with you in this decision. I wanted to write this letter in hopes to encourage you, and to share with you what God has shown me from my experience.

You see, I was the "offender" in my marriage. I was unfaithful. For 10 years I was unhappy, hiding my dissatisfaction about my life and marriage. Eventually the unhappiness lead to my infidelity.

My husband though, resonating God's grace, forgave me, and chose to love me without condition, just as you were determined to do with your husband. I was torn, I knew what was right, but my flesh wanted so badly to be "free" and follow my heart's desires. Being a Christian, I knew what God wanted, but I was fighting my flesh.

At the time, only 5 people on this planet knew our situation, and they were praying for me to come back to the Lord, and to my husband. Only 5 people. But God heard their prayers. I felt the Spirit move inside me, drawing me back to Himself, and I was ready to turn from my sins and repent. Thank God for those 5 people. Thank God for my husband's willingness to forgive, and thank God for Jesus' mercy, grace, and unconditional love! My chains were broken and I was set free. And our life has never been the same. God is so good. Since then I have dedicated my life to following Jesus, and serving the desperate housewife, reminding her of the hope found in Christ.

The reason I tell you this is to encourage you that with only 5 people praying for me, I was able to hear Jesus calling me. The veil was lifted and the chains were broken. It is still possible for this to happen to your husband, especially since you've got a little more than 5 people praying. You have hundreds of thousands people praying, because you are loved by many! Your impact has been great--and now the enemy is trying to derail that. This is a call to arms!

What if, instead of telling us you are pursuing divorce because your husband is unrepentant, you implored us to pray on your behalf? To pray on his behalf? To pray that the God of the miraculous would draw your husband back to Himself? What if you chose to stay with your husband until God unveils his eyes and releases him from the chains of bondage--even if it's until death?

What if you stood up as a wife unwilling to give up on her husband--just as Christ is unwilling to give up on His bride--so that wives everywhere could see a living example of unconditional love in you? When you felt God say, "You've done all you can.." you didn't hear the ending to His sentence. The last part was: "Now let Me do the rest."

Hurting Wife, I implore you, don't give up! I have not walked in your shoes, but I have walked in shoes similar to your husband's, and had my spouse given up on me, I don't know where I'd be today. I don't know who I would be today! But I do know the ripple effect of God's grace in my life never would've happened.

We cheat on Christ everyday. But He promised to love us anyway. Thank God He doesn't divorce us when we break our covenant with Him. I was a Christian wife, going to church on Sundays, praying, and serving others for 10 whole years while hiding my sadness and addiction for male attention. 10 years! Imagine if Christ had left me because I was taking too long to repent? We are called to love like Him. To not give up--no matter how much the other person hurts and betrays us.

Friend, I believe there is an amazing redemption story for you and your husband. It might take 10 weeks, 10 months, or even 10 years, but it will be worth it. I am proof of that. Marriage is the ultimate exercise in becoming more like Christ. We are being asked to love when it's the hardest thing to do. When you feel like your heart is so broken that even God Himself couldn't put it back together. But God allows the brokenness so that He can be the One to put us back together in the image of Him. He is refining you, and you are in the fire right now, and it hurts, but He is with you. Will you let the heat of the flames consume you, or will you continue to fan the flames of His love into your marriage? I know it's hard, but it can be done.

I hope you can see that my heart is for Christ, this letter is not to judge you, but to encourage and challenge you to love your husband like Christ loves you. You have an army of women--more than you could even count--watching and praying for you. Let us stand in the gap for you, let us come on this journey with you as you step out in faith that God will heal your marriage.

There is a miracle waiting to happen for your marriage. How do I know that when I don't even know you? 
Because I know God. 
And He is the God of miracles. 
He is in the business of bringing the dead back to life.
Don't forget that.

I hope this letter makes it's way to you and that the Spirit of the Living God refreshes your heart today. God bless you, you have my prayers.

With love,
Shannon Bishop, just a wife with the faith that God can do ANYTHING!

Are you in the Wilderness?

Luke 1:80 says,  
John grew up and became strong in spirit. And he lived in the wilderness until he began his public ministry to Israel. (NLT)

Do you think John is the only one who needed to spend time in the wilderness, growing and becoming strong in spirit before beginning his ministry?

You might recall that Jesus himself had to go through 40 days in the wilderness, facing temptation and fasting, as well as encouragement from the angels.

I would dare to say that we ALL must go through something similar, in order to be ready for God's calling on our life. Believe it or not, we all have a ministry. Whether it's a 5013C, official ministry with a name and website, or it's a quiet stirring within your soul that becomes your way of life, we all have a ministry. 

If you question what yours may be, here's a hint:


Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. ¹⁸ All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; ¹⁹ that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. ²⁰ Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. ²¹ For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5:17-21

We have been given the ministry of reconciliation, imploring the world to be reconciled with Christ.

So how can you do that? What is your specific calling within that calling? How will you teach the world to be reconciled to God?

If you want to know the answer to these questions, you must first grow up strong in spirit, like John...and accept that there will be a time of wilderness. Because that my friends, is where the most  growth can happen.

The wilderness is an uncultivated place. It's inhospitable...it's not exactly kind to you. This is the time when you learn reliance on God. This is a time of solitude in His Word, with little distraction from the fast paced world we're used to. This is a time to let the Lord cultivate your heart. A time to learn how to sit and be still in His presence. A time of worship. 
This is also a time of trial. Every wilderness has moments of beauty and peace, but also moments of darkness and fear.  This is where you learn to be thankful for the dark times because they draw you into a deeper reliance on Him. You learn that you are victorious through Christ, a conqueror, a warrior.

Do you feel that you are in the wilderness right now? Take heart, and remember that He is with you, and He is growing you, so don't fight it or try to make your own way out. Accept it and learn to lean on His understanding and grace.
  
Another version of the wilderness can be when you are frustrated that your ministry isn't going how you imagined it would. You feel like no one cares or wants to listen to what you are trying to tell them. 
Maybe God is saying you need to take more time to grow up in the spirit. Maybe, like me, you are a dreamer, and sometimes you rush into new ideas and passions because you envision a grand outcome, only to experience a grand let down! 

If we try to rush out of the wilderness and pave our own path, we will experience less than the glorious plan that God has in store. He will still find the good from the bad of course (Romans 8:28), but getting where He wants us may just take a little longer and contain more disappointment than it would've if we had just stayed on His path.

So wherever you are in your spiritual walk right now, whether in the wilderness, in the middle of your ministry, or trying to make your own path, remember that there is a time for everything, and God wants to take you through the wilderness so He can ready you for the ministry He has planned for you. Don't try to deny Him that. Instead, deny yourself, and follow Him (Matthew 16:24) wherever the path leads, knowing that His goal is to be glorified and reconciled with His children through your life and ministry.

Dear Masterpiece

Ephesians 2:10,  For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. (NLT)

God sees you as His masterpiece. Not just because He made you, and not just because He thinks you're beautiful, but because He has BIG plans for you. 

You serve a bigger purpose than to hang in a museum like most masterpieces. He doesn't want you sitting and staying in one spot..hiding away in your comfort zone! He wants you out, doing the good things He has planned for you.

When you look in the mirror you may not see a masterpiece..you might just see the extra weight you can't lose, or the tired face that was once full of life..but God sees His precious child. His masterpiece. He doesn't see you through the world's eyes. He sees you through His righteous eyes. His holy, pure and perfect eyes. Eyes that are worthy to make a judgement. And the verdict is in. He sees you as priceless.

Just accept it. 

Don't let unhappiness with your body get in the way of the amazing plans God has for you. The enemy wants nothing more than to hold you back by getting you self-focused. When all you see is your dissatisfaction with yourself, you can't see the needs of others crossing your path. Look up. Look out. Look for those divine appointments that you've been letting pass you by b/c you were embarrassed of your appearance.  YOU ARE A MASTERPIECE. YOU ARE WORTHY BECAUSE OF JESUS CHRIST.

Now live like it!

Come out of hiding, claim victory in Jesus and go do the good things that He has been calling you to do! New life awaits my friend, now go and live it!

Dear Control

I am one of those people that wants everyone to feel happy and comfortable.  I get this from my mother. When we were growing up (and still to this day) she would try to plan activities so that we were all happy and taken care of. She had pure intentions, but unfortunately sometimes she would come off as controlling and irrational, thus producing arguments and tension from her children, completely rendering her attempts at "having a great plan" useless.

But of course, as an adult, you don't realize right away that you are becoming your mother.
So when I would throw parties, plan events, or have people over for dinner, I would always be sure no one was feeling left out, everyone was enjoying their time, and that we could all walk away better, having had that experience.

It's been the same when it comes to Bible studies too. I want the women to understand the material, with no distractions, so that they can all get something out of it to better their walk with the Lord.

It all sounds good and fine, right?

But the question is, if my main focus is making sure everyone is happy and comfortable, am I really focusing on what Jesus wants, or my own agenda?

I recently learned a big lesson that I want to share with you because I think there are more of you like me than we realize. Especially those of you who are mothers and wives.

Moms tend to plan things around how to have a peaceful family experience. If the family is sitting down to eat, you don't put the two children next to each other that don't get along. If you have a road trip planned, you make sure you have plenty of snacks and coloring books (one for each child of course) so as to avoid fighting, and the dreaded question, "Are we there yet??" We basically try to set the atmosphere. Nothing is wrong with this.

Unless.

Unless you are stepping on the Holy Spirit's toes. (That's right, I just implied the Holy Spirit has toes.)

So...setting the atmosphere. That is HIS job. The Holy Spirit's. Not MINE.

I realized recently that in my attempt to control the atmosphere, I offended a friend. It then caused her to stumble, reacting angrily and bitterly toward me, and messing up what should've been a nice Bible study together.

I was more concerned with setting the atmosphere that I spoke without thinking and offended my friend. Now granted, my friend didn't exactly react in a godly fashion, she was quick to get angry, but I'm sharing MY lesson with you here. Had I just taken my concern to the Lord, the Author of the atmosphere, and prayed that HE would set the tone and provide peace for our study, then He would've done it, or He would've opened her eyes to the issue in His awesome God-way! He's the One that convicts, teaches and draws, not me.

I am reminded of the story of Mary and Martha. Martha was more concerned about making sure everyone was taken care of, than she was about listening to Jesus' teaching. When she called her sister Mary out in front of the Lord, He defended Mary saying "she has chosen the right thing, and it will not be taken from her." (Luke 10:38-42)

We must remember that even though God has given us a brain and abilities to multi-task, we are not meant to take it so far that we try and take over what the Holy Spirit is doing. We need to step back, stop controlling, and let Him do what only He can do, because THAT is when God moves the hearts of people. THAT is when true peace is experienced, and THAT is when we are able to be the best friend, sister, daughter, mother and/or wife we can be.

So take a lesson from me, release your control today. Ask the Holy Spirit to set the atmosphere for peace, and then watch what He does. Live in the freedom of His sovereign grace, instead of your silly human attempts to control the uncontrollable.

Believe me, it's a much better way to live.