“I Don’t Know What I’m Doing!” Pt. 3 – Hide and Seek

In the second week of January, I felt like the Lord told me to name January a month of seeking and finding. When I was a kid, (and even sometimes still), I frequently played the hot/cold game. This game of seeking involved a hidden object and a seeker who would be directed to its whereabouts with only the clues of “hot or cold”. As kids, we loved seeking. We made games out of it and even spent hours doing it. As adults, it seems that many of us are not as thrilled with the idea of taking time and energy to look for something, even if that something is extremely valuable, like our purpose, destiny, or direction in our leadership.

Unfortunately, this frustration with seeking reveals a lack of understanding with God’s ways. Proverbs 25:2 says, “it is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter.” It brings the Father immense glory to carefully hide the things in our lives that we need most and watch as we draw near to Him to search them out. The word “glory” here can also be translated as “honor”. It is God’s honor to hide things and it brings him honor when we value them enough to search them out.

We hide things that are valuable and powerful. We hide things that are secret and intimate. We hide things that are precious and near to our hearts. Conversely, the things that are common are accessed easily and treated lightly. God’s purpose for our lives is valuable and powerful. God’s blueprints and plans for the ministries, organizations, and people we lead are precious and near to His heart. God’s word for a generation is not to be treated lightly.

The reference to “glory” in this verse comes from a root word that can be translated, “heavy or weighty.” Many people use this word in reference to the weight or heaviness of God’s presence. The plans that God has concealed for your life and leadership hold great weight, great value, great substance, and great authority. Don’t settle for shortcuts in your ministry when you can have the weight of God’s wisdom in your planning, the weight of God’s counsel in your counseling, and the weight of God’s presence in your services.

Search out the purpose of God for your life and it will produce a substance that will keep you grounded amidst the pressure of the process. Don’t just wander through your season, set your heart to discover what he is trying to produce in you, and it will sustain you. Don’t settle for a hollow form of religion or second-hand faith; seek out the heaviness of His love and the essence of who He is.

Be encouraged. Your pursuit of God is time never wasted.

I Don’t Know What I’m Doing! pt. 2 – The Pressure of Omniscience

It is a common misconception that leaders have or should have all the answers.  This fallacy in philosophy is the driving force that leads many leaders right out of the will of God today. . . pressure. The same false pressure that was placed upon Adam in the garden when he removed himself from the primary influence of God’s voice in his life.  The pressure to be what only God can and should be: omniscient. 

When Adam made this critical move, a very significant event occurred in his life and consequently, all of humanity. Adam’s spirit, the primary place of living, decision-making and communion with God was relegated to his soul. Many of us know that the soul is comprised of our mind, will, and emotions; but have failed to realize that at the fall it became the dominant place from which we live. 

The image of God within and the blessing of God upon humankind have gifted us with the ability to create and build.  Some if not most of the ingenious technological and practical advancements in our world have stemmed from the brilliance of the brain, not  the bounty of the spirit. Applying this understanding in the arena of church growth, many leaders, gifted with intellect and creativity, personality and charisma, have learned how to create and build by their souls, not necessarily by their spirits.  In an attempt to simply gather more people for our production, our services get shorter, our messages get nicer, our stance becomes more ambiguous, and our events must become more spectacular. You don’t really need God to make these things happen. In so doing, they have lost their need for God. When a supposed standard of success in “the church” as we know it is obtained solely by the ability of man, it must be maintained and sustained by that same source of ability.  This is one of the reasons why many spiritual leaders face burnout – what they have built is not being sustained by God’s ability but their own.  This leads to the unhealthy pressure of omniscience.

Spiritual organizations that are built upon the foundation, structures and systems of the soul produce a snowball effect of the pressure of omniscience. In a frightening reality, many ministers and spiritual leaders have committed the same sin of Adam, becoming like God by replacing their need for God. I am guilty as charged.   

In our quest to “Be like God, knowing everything” (Gen. 3:5 – Message), let’s be mindful to reach this destination on the appropriate path.  One path, the path of our spirit, keeps us submitted to the rule and government of God, in spite of what we think or feel (soul), or the presupposed time limits and process we have adopted. The other path, the path of our soul, leads us toward man-centered wisdom, a form of humanism that is prevalent even in the church today.  

“I Don’t Know What I’m Doing!”

Sitting in a monthly youth pastor networking meeting last week, excitement arose in my spirit, as a young, new to the area, youth pastor admitted, “Will you pray for me? I don’t know what I’m doing!”

As church leaders, we are constantly tempted to take the path of certainty, sometimes, at the expense of faith, mystery, and even obedience.  Certainty produces a level of security in us as leaders, and leadership in any degree is one of the most insecurity intensive endeavors we can engage in.  However, certainty can also be a shortcut.  When Jesus was being tempted in the desert, Satan offered him “all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor” (Matthew 4:8).  An elementary study of scripture will prove that Jesus was already destined to obtain and rule over all the kingdoms of the world.  God’s plan for his Son obtaining this promise was the path of uncertainty.  Jesus would have to take a trust walk: through Gethsemane, mocking accusation, betrayal from his closest friends, inhumane torture, and ultimately death, all of which did not lend well to certainty.

When I choose to fall back on a message or dose of revelation I heard from someone else and not seek the scriptures on my own, I am taking a shortcut. When I leave no room in the layout of my services for any unscripted, spontaneous activity of God’s spirit, I am in danger of taking a shortcut.  When I reduce the infinite power, wisdom, and sovereignty of God to a formula, I have taken a shortcut.  I wonder what kind of results we would see if we invested the same 8 hours it took to produce that 30 second video into interceding for a generation.  Not that it’s EITHER prayer OR creativity, it’s BOTH prayer AND creativity. But an honest assessment might reveal that we are perhaps a little top-heavy on everything BUT prayer.

I have always taught that when you don’t know what to do, do what you know to do. We never graduate beyond the basics: Prayer, intercession, intimacy with Jesus, Studying the scriptures, and hearing from God. (Why are these so hard?)  There is simply no shortcut or substitute for the life of God that comes from the directives of God.  I am fully convinced that the God who spoke to significant leaders of bible and church history can and will speak today. So when you find yourself overwhelmed with not knowing what to do, be assured that you know the One who does.