Excerpt from Fruitful Living in Autumn
A couple of years ago, we were driving home after a particularly discouraging Friday night in which no one attended accept our immediate family. I mean no members, no visitors - nobody. After we took mom home, one of our sons exploded in frustration asking, “What are we doing this for?” We chuckled through our painful disappointment and told him that we felt the same way.
Sometimes it feels that way for all of our church family regarding many areas of our lives. So when it comes time to gather together, the big riddle from the enemy is, “Why are you doing this? It’s not going to make any difference!”
That is why we realize that we would still meet every week to pray, praise, worship, and dig into the Word of God, even if we were not meeting in the hotel. We’d meet in our home or wherever we had to meet because this is not about a goal and a dream to have a big ministry. When we look at our sons and all who attend each week, we are encouraged by a prophetic word that we received back in 1999.
The Lord spoke through one of the prophetic women that we were not to be concerned about our children and how to send them forth into their calling even though our funds were meager and provision was scarce. Then she began to sing the word of the Lord which was, “You shall pass on purpose, you shall pass on purpose, you shall pass on purpose - and that shall be enough; that shall be enough.”
We thought, back then, that the prophetic word was only for that season, but we can see that God was speaking 8 years ahead. He was speaking about the season we are in right now.
This word was specifically about our natural children. We have nothing to give to them except purpose. The same applies to all of you as the spiritual sons and daughters of this ministry. Our funds are meager and our provision is scarce. All we have to give you is purpose. But the Word of the Lord is; “that shall be enough.”
I guess that’s why we don’t preach the unbalanced prosperity message. We cannot stress the point enough that we are not striving for wealth, popularity, or fame. God is not grooming our church to be famous or popular. We are being groomed to be faithful and prosperity will come in many forms.
Did you know that money is the lowest level of wealth? There are many other assets that are higher than money. The highest level of wealth is human life. What I just stated is an example of many of the things we must declare and teach that will not be popular, especially in this day and time. Whatever measure of influence or notoriety that God allows us to experience, we must believe that HE is preparing us for it.
We believe that God keeps sending people to us who have been away from the church for a reason. Many are looking for a place of acceptance and forgiveness. They are not looking for religion and rituals. They have a lot of pain and trauma going on in their own lives when they arrive. However, all of them may not be ready to deal with their personal life situations. Many times people just want their pain to stop and they are accustomed to a quick temporary fix to stop the pain. If they come to our church, it may frighten them to find themselves in a place that teaches people to confront the issues in their lives.
Right now God is dealing with the areas in our lives where we just want the pain to stop and we don’t want to deal with what is causing the pain. As pastors, we do not believe in treating symptoms. We believe in dealing with the source and cause of the pain. When pastors take this approach, it’s not always going to be popular. So God is building a serious layer of toughness in us to withstand the pressure of where we’re going.
The Lord is teaching us how to follow Him and to stop arranging things and people in the way we want things and people to be. He’s teaching us to stop asking GOD to bless OUR plans and solutions. That’s really hard when you don’t see how God is going to do it. It’s even tougher when we really don’t trust God to handle our situations. This is where we will find the source of our pain. The pain is the result of an injury or a malfunction within us. Be encouraged though, because the Spirit of God is present to heal us.
