Expectation

Yesterday was a travel day. I drove from Louisville to Fort Smith, AR; the Lord was gracious and provided a safe trip for which I am always grateful and thankful. God is the One who provides the traveling mercies that we need. I am thankful that God is interested in my daily journey and He is always aware of my location. As I have stated before, God is the original GPS system operator and He is always aware of our location. I will have the privilege of sharing the speaking responsibilities with Bishop Randall Howard, General Overseer of the Church of God of Prophecy. Bishop Howard was installed in this position at the International Assembly of the Church of God of Prophecy in 2006. Prior to this position Bishop Howard had served the church as Global Outreach Director; this position allowed him the opportunity to oversee the work of Missions around the world. Bishop Howard has a great desire to lead the Church of God of Prophecy in the direction of re-connecting with our core values which include prayer, discipleship, and the planting of new churches in North America as well as around the world. I look forward to renewing my friendship with Bishop Howard and listening to him share the Word of God. The theme of this meeting is "Expect." As I was praying this morning the Lord reminded me the the enemy seeks to remove the attitude of expectation from us. Our enemy does not want us living in the spirit of anticipation/expectation. He wants us to settle for the status quo or spiritual business as usual. He wants us to live in the valley of low or no expectations but this is the time to be aware of the One who is seeking to direct our steps and reinvigorate our spirits with the Holy Spirit. As I have written before; will we allow God to place in our lives what we need or will we remain content to live the valley of dryness and discouragement? I am choosing to move out of the valley of low expectations and live on the mountain of hope and anticipation. I encourage you to join me on the journey of anticipation.

Information

I wanted to make you aware that portions of the Arkansas/Oklahoma Convention services will be broadcast live on the Internet. You can go this website: www.macogop.org; look for Quicklinks (top right corner), click on 2009 Convention live. As of this post the services are scheduled this way; Friday evening (July 10) beginning at 7:30 pm (CST) and Saturday evening ( July 11) at 8:15 pm (CST). Note the beginning of the services may vary so please check the website for the access of the programs. I trust that some of you may be able to join with us via the Internet. Ann's visit with the Doctor went well today. Her recovery from the accident continues to go well. The Doctor wants her to remain off her foot for at least three more weeks and then reevaluate her progress. We are thankful for your prayer support and for the words of encouragement that many of you have shared with us. It is a blessing to be a part of the family of God! I will be involved in several Camp Meetings and Convention services over the next few weeks. Each of the services will contains Pastors, local church leaders and laity. Many of them will be seeking inspiration and encouragement as they face the challenges in their lives. I ask that each of you pray daily with me that God will provide what each of these individuals need. I know that in myself I am unable to provide what they need but I know that God is the One who sees exactly where they are located on their journey.

Weekend Review

Pastor Bill and Sue Tatum as well as the congregation welcomed me into the fellowship of White Oak Family Worship Center. Although it was a holiday weekend the local body of believers were ready to recognize God, release their praises to Him, respond to the challenge of His Spirit, and finally receive the blessings that God had prepared for them. Saturday night, July 4th, found us enjoying the power of "spiritual fireworks" as the presence of God invaded the building and many of us responded to His visitation. I am continually reminded about the goodness of God and His desire to love and care for us. We can not afford to miss those declarations that God has made and continues to make toward His children. He is interested in our future and He has prepared direction for our lives if only we will be willing to follow His guidance. I truly desire to follow the guidance and direction of the Spirit. In previous postings I have written about the process that I feel needs to take place in our times of worship whether private or public. I have written about recognizing God and releasing our praise to Him. I want to add a step in that process before we reach the time that the Spirit begins to minister to our lives. I firmly believe that God is calling us to respond to the challenge and direction of the Spirit. As we release our praise to God we open the door for the revelation of the presence of God. But for the presence of God to have full liberty in our lives we must be willing to respond to His presence. We must make ourselves available to God. The enemy of our soul does not want us responding to God. It is when we respond to God that our faith is released into action. Throughout the Bible God called for a response. Christ called for a response as He released the power of miracles in the lives of individuals. The enemy seeks to make us afraid to respond. We are afraid of what others will think, we are afraid that our faith is too weak to receive an answer, we are afraid of failure, and in some cases we are afraid that we are only acting out of the desperation of the flesh versus the conviction of the Spirit. But I encourage you today not to be afraid any longer. Respond to God, allow Him near to your life, and receive all that He has prepared for you and for your journey with Him.

Celebration

We want to wish our family and friends HAPPY 4TH OF JULY! Many of us will gather with our family and friends today for cookouts, fireworks, boating excursions, etc. But in the midst of all of our celebrations let us remember those family members who are away from home at this time serving their country in the defense of our freedom. Let us not forget those who are making it possible for us to enjoy all of the activities that have become a part of our July 4th celebrations. The meeting at White Oak was powerful last night as the Spirit reminded all of us that He has plans and directions for our journey with Him. Life is too short to be lived with regrets regarding our relationship with Christ; give of your best to Christ and allow Him to work in your life through your spiritual development. I am truly excited about my future in Christ and with Christ. We are looking for more "spiritual fireworks" in the service tonight (July 4).

Independence

As we prepare to celebrate the July 4th holiday we need to remember those men and women who have been willing to pay the ultimate price for our freedom. It is easy to walk in freedom but many individuals down through the years of our history have offered their lives on a battlefield that our nation could enjoy our liberty today. To each of these brave men and women we say a heartfelt THANK YOU! Even today we have military personnel stationed in various parts of this world fulfilling their responsibility so that we could enjoy the opportunities of freedom. Take a moment this weekend and reflect on these soldiers and their families and realize that the price for freedom is still being paid. There are enemies of freedom who seek to destroy our nation both from within and without. We need to pray for these valiant soldiers and pray for the leadership of this nation. We are at a very crucial hour in our history and we need the direction of God. But I have not lost hope; throughout history God has raised up men and women for His purpose and plan and I believe He is doing the same thing at this point in the juncture of our history. We must not slack from our duties that are declared in the New Testament, we are to pray for our leaders whether we voted for them or not. Let us be faithful to our responsibilities; we know that God will be faithful to the promises of His Word. Today is also a good day to remember the price that was paid for our spiritual freedom. My heart leaps for joy as I reflect on the willingness of Jesus Christ to pay the debt for my sins. A line from an old song declares, "He (Jesus) paid a debt that I owed"; we must remember that we were in need of a Savior and that we were captured in the kingdom of darkness and Christ paid the price for our redemption. I challenge you to worship the Lord today. I challenge you to lift your voice as never before and rejoice in the fact that you have been delivered from the powers of sin and transferred into the Kingdom of Christ. Just as the freedom for our nation did not come without a price so it is also true concerning our spiritual freedom. Our spiritual freedom cost the death of our Savior on a "old rugged cross"; Christ died that we might live and today I am thankful for His willing sacrifice for my deliverance. As you move through this weekend and all of its celebration events do not forget to offer praise and thanksgiving to Christ and all that He provided and continues to provide for all of us. GOD BLESS AMERICA!

What am I Doing in Church?, Part 3

I desire to continue this thought regarding our participation with God in worship service. We not only participate with fellow believers during the service but we are also called to interact with God. I wanted to take a look at the next step in the process of Worship that God placed in my heart. Release: I firmly believe that each one of us is called and challenged by the Word to release our praise and worship to the Lord God Almighty. No one can tell your story like you can. No one can Worship for you and no one can express your praise and thanksgiving. Is it possible that the modern day church has grown lazy in this step of the process? Many churches have praise teams that are blessed with talented singers and musicians and in some instances we may think that they can offer praise to God for all of us. We grow comfortable allowing them to do the "worshipping" for us and we just sit back and enjoy the music and singing. It can almost become a time of entertainment for us rather than a time of personal gratitude and thanksgiving to God for who He is and for all that He has done for us. After we recognize God, we need to release our praises to God. We need to raise our voice of adoration and exaltation to the One who has paid the price for our redemption. I refuse to allow my voice which desires to reflect a heart of praise to be silent any more; God has worked in marvelous ways in my life and He deserves my very best praise. This past week, Pastor Barfield encouraged the local body to offer "heartfelt praise to God." We need to release our praise from the deepness of our soul as we recognize the work of God's grace taking place in our lives. As we release our praise we find ourselves entering into the deeper presence of the Spirit which then in turn opens the door of our hearts for the ministering presence of the Spirit. We do not have to wait on something spectacular to take place before we can praise Him; David reminded us in Psalm 150 that everything that has breath should offer praise to God. As you prepare for your next worship time with God, whether private or pubic, prepare your heart to offer adoration to God and be prepared to RELEASE your praise and worship. The revival this week at Mt. Carmel was wonderful. The anointing of the Spirit was upon each of the services. Each night found people in the altars and even in the pews seeking the face of God. The anointing of the Lord was very strong and people testified that needs were met by the presence of God. Only Heaven can fully record all that was accomplished but I knew that as I ministered to people that God was doing some awesome things. I am more determined than ever before to see revival come to the church in America. God is at work, will I be willing to join Him in what He is doing or will I be content to be an observer rather than a participant with Him? Only you can answer that question for yourself.

What am I Doing in Church?, Part 2

I believe that the the Lord has placed three words is my heart as I reflect on my time in any individual worship setting whether this time is private or public. These words are: Recognize, Release, and Receive. I want to take a moment and elaborate on these words. RECOGNIZE: In some ways I wrote about this need in yesterday's posting. During prayer and meditation time yesterday the Lord began to reinforce in my spirit the need to recognize the presence of God among His people. We must learn to focus the attention of our heart and soul toward the One who is able and ready to make a difference in our lives. Do you realize that if someone rich, famous, or what we considered important came in among us we would do our best to place him/her in the line of our eyesight? We would move our head and in some cases even move our body so that we could position ourselves for that one look so that we could go away from that encounter and declare that we saw the person that we intended to see. People will camp out early to get the best seats in the house; people will camp out in front of ticket offices to buy those "special tickets" for the entertainer or sporting event that is so important to them. Yet, we go to church and the slightest distraction can cause us to lose our focus on Christ and before long our minds are adrift in the sea of things of lesser importance. We must learn the discipline of right priorities. The most important presence in our services is the presence of God. We must seek to turn our hearts toward Him and seek to identify His presence. A few years ago I attended an Alabama football game ( I am a diehard Crimson Tide fan) with our sons. We arrived early (can you even imagine arriving early at church?) at the game so that we could watch for the team buses to arrive. We wanted to see the players and the coaches arrive for the game. When the buses arrived we followed them to the gate where they would unload; not to be outdone, I made my way close to the door, stuck out my hand and began to shake the hands of the team and coaching staff as they arrived. I "recognized" many of the players and several of the coaches; needless to say I shook several hands that day because I positioned myself to "see" the players. Don't you think it is time that we positioned ourselves to "see" the Lord God Almighty as He releases His Spirit among His people? The next time you are in a public worship service position yourself to see the presence of God as He begins to move in your life and the lives of those who are present in the service.