Thought for the week- May 13th, 2009

Deut 6:4-5 "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one! You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.

I’ve been on the edge of some type of revelation for a while now. It has been fleeting, like reaching for a steam cloud and having it disappear when you close your hand around it.

The Spirit of God has been speaking to my spirit, but I haven’t been able to comprehend or hear clearly what He has been saying or trying to teach me. Yesterday during staff, the heavens opened with a bang and I had the epiphany.

The discussion was on the proper priorities that pastors should have. The widely accepted and taught priority list is this-

1. God
2. family (spouse then children)
3. church
4. everything else

Most of us pastors get into trouble assuming #3 directly relates to #1, and in some ways it does. However, it suddenly occurred to me that I’ve had it all wrong. There is no list. I have spent the last day meditating on this, and I believe our priorities should look like this-

All of the problems in life can be traced back to this diagram. Preachers are great for telling people how to live, but often times in an effort to help people live a life pleasing to God, we reduce our relationship with Him to a set of rules and/ethical norms that have to be followed.

Those are important, but we should instead focus on teaching people to have a proper relationship with God. The law is a schoolmaster to point out our sin, but often times we (and I definitely count myself in this) come short and only point out the disease without offering the cure.

The verse from Deuteronomy that I used at the top of this devotional is called the Shema (meaning “Hear O’ Israel) among the Jews. It is their simple declaration of faith. Looking at the Hebrew in these verses, another way to translate it would be “Listen Israel, Yahweh our God is everything/altogether/our complete focus/our number 1 on a list of 1”.

Our relationship with God is not to be number 1 on a list of other things. There is no list with God. Anything else on a list with God is an idol.

All of our problems with sin, all of our problems with temptation, and all of our problems with relationships can all be traced back to this truth. If everything in our lives emanates from God, everything else in life takes care of itself.

Get alone with God and ask Him what is lacking in your relationship with Him. Let Him show you His wondrous riches and the incredible depths that He wants to take you in intimacy with Him.

It’s all about HIM! Let us covenant together to make Him our everything.

Many blessings,

Living in the Rhema Word

I was reading Prov 29:18 this morning-
Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint; But happy is he who keeps the law. NKJV
Sometimes you read a verse that you’re read dozens of times and for whatever reason; the Holy Spirit uses it to speak to your life right at that moment. That happened to me this morning.

As a rule, I would rather not create a blog entry that is devotional in nature unless it is something that God is speaking directly to me as I don’t want to waste your time or mine just to send something out. Today, God spoke, and so I’ve written it down for my benefit and yours.

Several thoughts came to my head as the Holy Spirit poured HIMself into me this morning. The first thought I have correlates this verse with Matt 4:4- “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word (Greek word- rhema) that comes from the mouth of God”. Jesus quoted Deut 8:3 to ward off the attack of the enemy. Jesus stresses the need for a rhema word of God- not just the logos, but hearing from God in an intimate relationship with HIM. The Greek word rhema is defined as a spoken word, where the Greek word“logos” is defined as a written word. The “word” God wants us to live in is the spoken word, and that only comes through a deep and abiding relationship with HIM. You don’t hear a person’s voice unless you purpose to spend time with them, and the same is true of God.

Second, is the “people cast off all restraint”. Where there is no relationship with God, there is no restraining influence of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit brings life giving words (Rhema) that illuminate the written Word of God (logos). We can memorize the whole bible (satan has, and it didn't change him one iota), but unless it is tied in with a relationship with God and continued revelation of who HE is, it has no affect on the way we live. That is why the ethical standards in the Evangelical churches are so low- we traded a “head knowledge” of God (which has its roots in pride) for the intimacy with God, which is based on a loving relationship with HIM.

Third, the believers influence in the world is absolutely hindered if not completely eradicated if they are not living in that fresh word from God. We can’t speak to the hurting and dying world unless we are completely HIS and dead to the things of this world. We’ve (and I’m the worse at times) traded in an abiding, deep relationship with the Almighty for secular entertainment. Leonard Ravenhill spoke to this when he said that “entertainment is the devils substitute for joy”, because true joy only comes through that intimate relationship with God.

Jesus is our example- sure he went to parties and hung out with people, but over and over again the Gospels portray a man who no matter how tired He was or no matter how stressed He might have been in His earthly self, He continually sought His Father in times of solitude. Jesus knew that the key to a victorious life on earth was to continually seek heaven and the throne of God.
We can’t expect to move this world or advance the Kingdom of God so long as we refuse to allow God HIS rightful place in our lives. I’m going to be open and honest here and share a few things from my life that God has shown me lately that steal time from seeking him in my life. I share it because I think it might help others-
1. Turn off the news- I confess that I’m a huge news junkie, especially Fox News and their prime time talk shows like O’Reilly and Hannity. While I respect what these men are trying to do in the realm of conservative politics, endlessly focusing on what is happening in the world will depress even the cheeriest of people. What is going on in the world has already been told to us, and should come as no surprise (see Matt 24/ 2 Tim 3). If I/we spend half the time we spend taking in news in prayer, we’d see a revival that would dwarf all previous ones.
2. Watch how much time we spend in leisure- Humans, especially this one, don’t do well with time off. Humans were made to take in stimulation, and boredom is the devils playground. Make an effort to fill days off with things that further your relationship with your God and your family.
3. Music- Humans were created for worship. When we take the medium (music) that God has blessed us with to worship HIM and substitute it for songs that sing of worldly things, we shouldn’t be surprised when our thought lives are not pure and we struggle with temptations on all sides.

That’s a lot God showed me from one verse….but it comes from an abiding relationship with HIM. Although I often struggle to maintain it (more than you know), He has been drawing me harder now then ever in my life, and I praise HIM and thank HIM for continuing to woo me as the Lover of My Soul…

It is my prayer and more importantly, the desire of heaven, that everyone who reads this will experience God in even greater ways then I have. We are moments from eternity, let’s toss this world’s distractions aside and purpose to really seek God instead of just paying lip service to it.

Love and blessings,

John A. Oscar
Evangelism Pastor
Prayer House Assembly of God
pastorjohn@prayerhouseag.org
www.prayerhouseag.org
http://pastorjohnsview.blogspot.com

The Crushed Life

Isa 53:10- Yet it was the LORD's will to crush him and cause him to suffer

The old man started awake as a rat scurried over him. The soldier next to him stirred in his sleep, opening his eyes slightly to see if all was okay before drifting back to sleep. It took a moment for the old man to get his bearings, and sighed remembering where we was. He quietly rolled over and planted his face in his hands and began to pray, giving thanks for another day to witness to the hardened young man that was chained to him in this dark, damp, always cold cell. For months he had worked on him, peeling back the layers. For a Roman soldier, prison duty was generally the worse duty that could be pulled, and kept as a punishment for soldiers who were sub-standard in some way. Yet, being with the old man for these months had softened his heart as he kept hearing of a man who did the incredible, raising the dead, making blind men see, and then did the inscrutable- dying for all men.
As the old man poured his heart and spirit into his prayer, the young soldier woke up and saw the old man again praying. It seemed to be all he did besides talking to him and other prisoners about a man named Jesus who he claimed was God. The soldier watched as the man moaned into his hands begging his God to move in the hearts of the other prisoners so that they would believe his words and be saved. Then the old man began praying for him, and the soldier’s heart was moved at the love being expressed by the old man as he begged Jesus to save him. The young mans eyes moistened as he watched the man sway, almost as if he was a women in labor straining with everything that was in him as he prayed. Something in the man’s heart stirred and broke as he watched the love of the old man pour out for him before his God.

“Paul,” he whispered, drawing the old man out of his prayer. “Tell me again about this Jesus…”. The Apostle Paul rose from his prostrate position and smiled at the young soldier, and began to speak the words that would lead him to salvation…

I was struck this week reading this verse from Isaiah- it was the Lord’s will to crush Jesus. Jesus who did not sin, but lived a life of perfect obedience to God, was crushed by a Father who love Him…

God’s ways seem so inscrutable. It’s hard for us to see the how’s and whys we go through difficult times. Paul, like Jesus, suffered for doing God’s will. It’s the exact opposite of what we or the world for that matter would expect God to do. We expect an immediate reward when we obey, but perhaps God has you on a higher road. See, if Jesus hadn’t been crushed by God, we would still be dead in our sins. If Paul hadn’t been crushed by God, we would not have a New Testament and the Gospel would have been a Jewish thing only.

In order to get wine, a grape has to be crushed. Our reaction to adversity shows the condition of our hearts and what truly dwells there. What comes out of you when God even squeezes you a little? (and lets be honest, not many of us have been squeezed as hard as Jesus or Paul!)

Make an effort in the coming year to allow God to squeeze you a little. Decide right now as you read this that you will spend more time with HIM in separated prayer- going away and being just with God. Go to your church, or for a walk in the woods and just commune with HIM. If you do that, when God decides it’s time to squeeze you, only the oil of the Holy Spirit will come forth, and that the true and loving nature of God will be shown to this lost and dying world.

It’s a higher road, but one that is worthy of Jesus if we say we are truly following HIM!

Love and blessings,


John A. Oscar
Evangelism Pastor
Prayer House Assembly of God