Recently in Heart Category

Thus far in the 21 day Awakening Fast with my church family, and now on day 7, I have not had or experienced really any powerful presence of the Holy Spirit and the times of my encounters with the presence of God and all of the top spiritual experiences have not yet happened with my church or for me personally in many years. I have had good times with God, but I say mountain top, I mean a very powerful and life altering encounter with God. I was wondering about that, but then something started to click.

There is a new foundation of something God is at work in building in me and in my heart and it is not a individual spiritual mountain top experience. I've had those and I love them and crave more and believe more will come in the future, but I realized that I have in all of my great experiences that have changed my life in the works God has done in me and in the presence of Him - they have all been individual. I have been with others corporately and had them, but I do not believe any others around me have experienced what I did corporately, with me, for a similar purpose and in a very similar way, to unite us for a purpose as a body of one.

Yet, here recently, although for a growing period of several months, I have been experiencing and seeing the foundation for something very much like that taking place among my church family. It is what I can best explain as a work of community by the Holy Spirit. Yet, more than just community, as my church is more church family, than a community. We are growing in a unified purpose and I have been experiencing church family in a way that I did not think possible this side of eternity. While individual encounters with the Holy Spirit are powerful and life changing and build us up individually, I have not had any that have unified me with others for a purpose we all share and in this way before. It's not a mountain top spiritual experience thus far, but it's amazing and I think the foundation of something that God is at work in doing is growing and being prepared during this 21 day Awakening fast with my church family.

That has me excited. I love the presence of God and knowing Him more and having my satisfaction in Him increase. But, up until this weekend I have never considered what the mountain top like experience with the presence of God would be like - to experience with an entire local body of my brothers and sisters in which and through which God did so with purpose for reaching our city for His glory. 

Such a work of community of the Holy Spirit, well..

It would be incredible. 

It would not be setting me on fire individually for the Lord for His glory, but it rather would be setting an entire church body on fire for Jesus, as a body united with one purpose. 

I can't even being to imagine what that would be like.

Yet, that is the foundation for what I think the Holy Spirit is at work in doing in me, but not just in me, in many of my brothers and sisters with my church family.

I can't even begin to process this. Right now, I am simply in joy in it. 

Basking in the love of God. 

Looking forward for what God is going to do in the next 2 weeks during our Awakening Fast. It's just began, the best is yet to come. 

This is going to be a year to remember.

If you have not yet read the preface to this entry, please do so first by clicking here.

If you have not yet watched the video you will want to watch it at some point to follow and better understand my entry. I'll post it at the bottom of this entry.

The video has a obvious message of Jesus offers grace, but religion isn't good. It does not leave room for apathy in the response. You will experience either grace or offense in your response to watching it. 

The audience is two fold. Though a third audience is out there, but I don't think this message of the video is intended directly to them through perspective of this being a message the Holy Spirit has brought about for a purpose through Jeff (the young man who made it).

The response is either something around grace or something around offense for all three audiences. In this I don't know if Jeff intended or understood the audiences the video goes out to. Let me be clear that the focus of this entry is on the video and the message it communicates and things around that. 

The audience of the first group are those who are carrying around mistakes (saved or unsaved) who have not grasped or experienced a revelation of the grace of Jesus.

The audience of the second group is that of not understanding or experiencing, I propose, a revelation of grace by the Holy Spirit. Now, hold on a minute, if in reading this, your response is offense, I ask you why? I suspect my statement might be of offense to some, but I do not intend or mean it to be, but none the less, some people may have a response of offense to that statement.

You see, I propose, having experienced a revelation of grace in a profound way (our grasp and experience of it and understanding may in fact be infinite - I'm not sure, but I suspect it is), but in hearing the message - even if I do not fully agree with it all - my response was not offense to the message, but an expansion on my experience and my consciousness of grace, from I think what I can best explain as a revelation of grace I had in 2011. 

That's what has got me thinking and that's a big part of this entry. 

If your response is offense, can you honestly tell me, you have a complete grasp and understanding of the fullness of the grace of God? 

Give my questions some thought, and prayer and ask God to guide you by His Holy Spirit in these questions. If you refuse to ask God about these questions, why is that? I myself am still growing in my revelation of grace, but it has changed my life and set me free in many ways.

By revelation, let me make it clear, I mean a spiritual understanding, experience, grasp, clarity, a ah-ha moment, in the understanding of grace. This is perhaps best explained as moment, when something finally clicks, you get it, it makes since. Not something super spiritual and far out there that is just kind of weird. 

Something in me started turning in this, that got my thoughts going, when I started seeing the response of some who were taking what seemed to be to me an offense to this video, who are in fact Christians, not self-righteous people who do not know God. In fact, it appears to have brought such an offense, that they have been moved to write long and in depth blogs about this video and the problems they have or the concerns they have with it - and it got me thinking. Yes, the response people have had to the video and the impact of it has prompted me to write a long and in depth blog entry, but as you can see my prompting is not from offense, but out of grace and in feeling led to point out the results from this video that we can't afford to miss.

Now, I do not know of course the response of others to have if fact been offense to prompt what they have wrote, but as I looked at the response of some blogs and comments and tweets, I did not see in them what seems to be a root of grace in what was being wrote, but with a root from an offense, seeking clarity or simply defending and attacking.

It got me thinking, why was I not dealing with guilt, having a deeper grasp and or experience of grace in watching the video, while maybe not in agreement with it all, without having an offense from it, but others were having a response that seemed to be from a root of offense?

I didn't think all that much about the video the first time, it didn't spark a huge thing of grace in me, some, but not a lot, but no offense. 

I don't think this video or message was for those in my audience directly, but we none the less are blessed in experiencing more grace from it. 

I may be wrong, I am not claiming this to be absolute, but again, I have to propose the response, even if you disagree with the message in parts, if the response you have had is offense, and not of grace, why?

Before I go on, let me clarify, that I am writing this on the basis of the video and the effect of the poem and the words in it and the format and way the message is conveyed. 

I am not writing it in on the intention of what Jeff may or may not have had in making it nor of his motives behind it or even of his views, beliefs or doctrine or theology or even understanding of what he said in it.

I do believe in having watched it and his other videos, and what I have observed thus far, that Jeff likely made the video with good intentions, and good motives and not expecting a response like he has. I read a blog of someone who got a email back from and and that response confirmed much of what I thought last night about that.

Let me further clarify that I think Jeff in the making of this video, was used by the Holy Spirit, as a vessel through which this message has been spoken, and that it is largely in part why through the work of the Holy Spirit, his video, and the message in it, has reached nearly 10,000,000 views on You Tube now in such a short period of time.

That's my thoughts thus far, but let's look at the verses in the video.

First, we have to define religion, or look at that word. What does it mean?

If you don't stop and think about that, you have to stop and go back and look at that. 

The word religion has different meanings to different people. 

But, let's get the meaning from the video, not the audience first. If the source makes the meaning clear, we should go with that meaning, not our own when we first hear the word.

Looking at the video, I don't see how one can get a meaning of it other than man's attempts to come to God. Religion being man's attempt to come to God. Relationship being Christ's work to bridge the gap between us and God - the only way to come to God - through Christ. 

In his reference to church, I think it is pretty clear, the meaning is not the "Church" with a Capital "C" meaning the body of Christ, the people, the bride of Christ, but rather a little "c" in church building's where local bodies of followers of Christ meet for services and fellowship.

I've already seen the video written off as, if it sounds, looks and feels good - is it good? Is it right? 

Whoa.. wait a minute.. let's hold on a minute.

Yes, Hollywood produces things that sound, look and feel good, but are not good. 

But, are we really going to make that instant implied assumption?

Are we not expecting the body of Christ to produce things that sound, look and feel good in the means, method and the way of delivery? I hope not.

CS Lewis and Francis Schaeffer produced works that sound, look and all feel good and the means, method and way of delivery are stellar. 

I'm not putting this video on their level, but just making a point that good and well produced messages can be good - and when they deliver a message in a new way - same truth always there - but in a format that people are able to grasp in ways they did not before - that is not a bad thing. I know they are different formats, but it is late and my thinking is going to be a bit off at this hour of night. It is almost 3:30am, so my thinking isn't quite on right now.

The language of today's culture that is understood and trusted and viewed as accredited is that of which sounds, looks and feels high qualify and in a style and format that Jeff in this video did and did well. 

I see the older generation pointing to the confusion of the younger generations. Well, let's look at that because there is truth to it (a lot) because the younger generations are confused. But, let's not move on quite so fast, the older generations are also confused. Maybe not now in the church (well I think our entire culture in and out of the church is confused), but the older generations lost a lot of ground in the culture battles of their generations, that's why my generation and the younger one's are in the culture that is so confused today. So let's not jump on the generation bashing band wagon - there are no winners.

The question is, well is Jeff's video having an effect of revelation of grace on people? 

I think so.

I think that's why there have been 10,000,000 views on You Tube.

His video has 10,000,000 views because it communicates something that speaks to the younger generations and there aren't many, if any, YouTube videos from the older generations that have gone viral like this on You Tube that have done that.

I doubt even TBN, reaches, this audience, in a week, globally. They have a much bigger budget and resources and experience. Regardless of the thoughts you have on the network, it doesn't matter, they have a big network, but still, I doubt it has ever reached the audience that this video did and so fast. Jeff is a young man and this new video I bet has gone past what he expected or ever dreamed it was going to do. He may not have planned his words for his poem for the video as well as he would now that it has gone viral if he knew in advance what was coming. Yet, he did it with boldness and with courage. That has to be respected.

The message communicated hits something within people, it is speaking to the younger generations, that's why it went viral.

It delivers grace to the soft hearted and it brings offense to others and not grace, my question is why? If you watch the video and it does not bring about an experience of grace, why it that you have experienced a feeling of offense and not of grace?

I make no judgments, but I am asking a question, that I think rightfully would be wise to ask one's self.

I will go into the verses, verse by verse, perhaps another night.

That's all I have for this entry.

It's late and I'm calling it a night.

Here's the video if you haven't seen it yet.