Yesterday I had a very powerful demonstration of the truth of the well worn adage ‘your attitude determines your altitude’. We hear it so much we almost scratch our heads trying to remember chapter and verse for it, in vain, of course. Not that there are not a number of bible verses that illustrate the same truth. Anyway on Sunday we had a powerful service where we were all conscious of the Lord calling us to order over a number of things that had to be corrected in the way we did church and in our attitude to His work and to the ministry of the gospel. Many came forward to repent and pledge radical change.
As soon as we were out the door however, I knew some were yet to apply the word at a deeper level. And come Monday morning, I had firm confirmation that old habits die hard. People were already shirking their responsibilities and demonstrating the kind of behaviour that occasioned the repentance to begin with. One person in particular so thoroughly put me out that I replied their email with a strong five point email of rebuke. I could not believe that they were so soon turning away from the good resolutions adopted the previous day. They called, repented, obeyed and I reluctantly agreed to have them come over to do the work we had originally planned.
The day went reasonably well and towards the end of the day minding my own business, the Holy Spirit moved in and spontaneous prayer erupted, you know those totally unsolicited outbursts in other tongues (if you are not charismatic, can’t help you there) willed by the Spirit where you know God is up to something and did not see fit to ask my opinion on the matter. We spoke in tongues for a while, flow after flow after flow, effortlessly, gloriously, powerfully. They were immediately in the Spirit, that alone was surprising. And what followed was even more.
God saw fit to give me, me, a prophetic word for them. I saw it, heard it, and did what you would have done too, I tried to talk God out of it, surely it was not necessary, certainly not so soon after their misdemeanours of the morning, they needed to stew a bit more. And what about my credibility, after berating them I now start prophesying over them. Then I did what you would have done, I spoke out the prophetic word, it was powerful, encouraging, uplifting and it even blessed me. I rather like being on good terms with God, I would rather He did not smite me when I found myself alone with Him, and if it meant encouraging someone I wanted to strangle ( not literally of course) well, so be it.
Their reaction to the word put me to shame and delighted me. God was right after all, He always is of course. He sees into the heart of men. He did not commend their wrongdoing, rather their repentance and humility and He spoke life over them. It was a demonstration of the overwhelming kindness of God, and I was so moved by it that I found myself saying once again to the Lord, ‘Lord I want to be just like you when I grow up’. I think God was right on another score, had he given the prophetic word through someone else I might have smirked, and now I just rejoiced. So they started the day on the wrong foot but because their attitude was right, God commended it and they went home rejoicing and soaring. And I decided I really liked Jesus.
Shalom!