There is a movement afoot. There is a disquieting in the church and God is moving on the earth. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like He’s been hanging out doing a whole lot of nothing and His slumber has been stirred. He has always been moving, He is God after all and He has been working out His perfect plan since He made the universe. But this is a tiny release of His tangible presence.
The Father is calling us back to Him as individuals. He is reminding us that He called Peter, that He called Matthew, that He called John. The list goes on but each of them in the moment said yes and then went. Each of them was required to give a yes to the sovereign God. There was no group effort or mob mentality. It is critical that we begin to separate the community activity from the heart of the Father and the call to give him a yes or a no.
For too long we have created the perfect fishing environment. We keep stressing the fishing with nets and it is good except for that they all fished with nets before they knew Jesus. Fishing with nets was not something that Jesus specifically taught them. What Jesus taught them was where to put their nets and what to do when the nets came back full and what to do when they came back empty.
We spend so much time teaching the things of man. We spend so much time teaching how to cast out nets. Our intentions are good but our intentions always diminish the power of the Christ and embellish our own strength. Modern Christianity looks like the world looks. We gather on a Sunday for a big meeting where we sing old songs written by men to explain Jesus to us. We give out a bunch of relevant information about other gatherings and goings on where we can gather in groups and talk about how hard it is to follow Jesus and then someone stands up and teaches more about Jesus. When it is all over we have people who will pray for our lack. Wash rinse repeat.What we end up with is small group counseling with a Messiah added on for good measure.
These are our ways. We create a program to deliver the content. We really believe that somehow Jesus was culturally relevant. The only problem I have with these ideas is the Word of God. Jesus didn’t really have a community program or a retreat. He found some people and specifically picked them to follow Him around so that they could learn about His Kingdom. He talked to large groups of people and small groups. Sometimes He dealt with people one on one. He continued to teach the disciples secret things He did not tell the masses. He showed them how to pray, He led them into desolate places and then He fed them. He showed them His glory and His power and reminded them that He and God are the same. He gave them a plan and sent them out to teach others what they had been taught. Not one of them started a church, they all came back and continued to follow Him around. He told them that they must eat His flesh and drink His blood. And then most of the people stopped following. So what is that all about?
It is about the truth. He called them to a die to yourself and follow me relationship. He called them to a one on one relationship where He becomes everything and everything else becomes pointless. He taught them that He is the way. And because they had revelation of this truth a community was born. Individuals desperately seeking after the Father will produce a mass effect. They will multiply. We need to cry out for this truth. Teach us to pray, teach us to follow Him for real. Teach each one of us to cry out to Him from our place of brokenness. Teach us that there is no good thing apart from Him. It is time to end the programs and it is time to spend hours in front of Him in His throne room. It is time to stop throwing the nets in the wrong location. We want an outpouring of the Spirit and this will only come when each and every individual calls out to the Father. There is no community on that day we see Him face to face. This is not a group test. This is an individual relationship. This following Jesus is not a team sport. Each one of us must eat the flesh and drink the blood on our own. Each one of us independent of all the others must say yes to Christ alone. He will have His way. And when He has His way . . . well the church will look quite a bit different. Don’t you think?
