Glory and Joy

"I have set the Lord continually before me; because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoices; my flesh will also dwell securely...You will make known to me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; in Your right hand there are pleasures forever."
(Psalm 16:8-9, 11)
"When the Lord is before him (David) and at his right hand, his "glory rejoices." The word translated as "rejoice" also means "tremble." This makes me think of a tuning fork that vibrates when its note is sounded. When God is before us, when we are close to Him, we resonate with the same sound that is God. We rejoice in His presence, for in His "presence is fullness of joy." Our glory rejoices - the substance that we share with God is expressed in the intimacy and exchange of being with Him as Father and children, and that expression is joy."
Paul Manwaring, What on Earth is Glory? (P.62)


I started reading What on Earth is Glory? a couple of days ago and then this morning I came to this passage and I was just so overwhelmed and amazed by it that I just wanted to share it. The idea that in the presence of our Daddygod we just can't help but rejoice and tremble in His presence is just incredible. 


When you think about all the brokenness, hurt and betrayal in this world that we are exposed to on a daily basis and then you contrast that with this Father that when you're with Him just envelops you in Love and Joy it just takes my breath away. 


David writes that he has "set the Lord continually before me," from that he is able to say with complete confidence that "he will not be shaken," when we have God set right before us we have no reason to ever doubt, worry, or fear again, whatever the world can throw us our God is Bigger, Stronger and He will never, ever, ever leave us. His overwhelming, all-consuming love for us means that He will always be there. When we have this mindset we are then free from the constraints of this world, we are free to rejoice in our Father, to rest in His presence and be daily overwhelmed by His joy. 


I love the image that Paul Manwaring gives of us, as tuning forks, so that when we can feel the presence of God we can't help but be filled with His joy. This makes me ask the question, how can I be more tuned into His presence? How can I fine-tune myself so that I can have more of this joy and feel more of His presence? 

Garden - Misty Edwards

This is a link to a video with this song. The video contains footage from the film, The Secret Garden; it is powerfully relevant to the song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUW5dkoCjnU

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Lyrics:

It's You and me alone God You and me alone
Here it's You and me alone God You and me alone

You've hedged me in with skin all around me
I'm a garden enclosed a locked garden
Life takes place behind the face

So come into Your garden
Come into Your garden

Here O Lord! Have I prepared a place for You!

I'm no longer my own I'm Your garden

I don't want to wasted my time living on the outside
I'm going to live from the inside out
I don't want to waste my life living on the outside
I'm going to live from the inside out

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They say there are 1000 words in a picture and 1000 pictures in a word. This is definitely true of this song - each phrase with enormous depth and significance - almost as if there are worlds to be explored and gifts to be opened in every line. It is a wonderful picture of intimacy with God, inspired by Song Of Songs; our relationship is described as a garden, even that we are the garden, His garden. The song starts with lines of poetry. The whole song is infused with life, and the video attached to this is perfectly suited to the song, as if it is the song in visual form!

The music is atmospheric and enchanting, with beautiful electric guitar work, vocal meoldies and atmospherics with a clean, liquid feel. What I love is the sense of treasure that we are as God's possession and masterpiece, made in His image. We are gifts unwrapped and we can give ourselves to Him to unwrap us.

Above everything else - Rend Collective Experiment

Here is a link to this song. Scroll down through the others to find it.

http://www.myspace.com/rendcollectiveexperiment/music/albums/organic-family-hymnal-14948595

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Lyrics:

You rule over distant seas over every part of me
You raise the day from night and the song inside of me
You watch all the planets spin and my eyelids flickering

Beyond everything else You are, You are
Above everything else You are

Greater than life itself
More precious than perfect health
Finer than friendship or romance
More needed than oxygen
More pleasing than thrill or fame
Stronger than death or gravity

You speak and the waves obey, but You whisper peace to me
You hold the skies in their place and my past and destiny
You reign over war-torn lands, over famine, fear and kings

King Jesus You are victorious, You are
King Jesus You are victorious

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The whole song is packed with gems. While some of the lyrics sound strange on execution, the themes echoed out resonate deeply with the heart of a worshipper. In this song, the supremacy of God is not just an abstract idea but brought right home to every aspect of our lives and who we are. Complemented by driving yet contemplative music (you have to hear it) this song is bursting with passion and delight in the infinite.

However, what really does it for me is the last section, 4 minutes into the song, when the music drops down and builds powerfully with the lyrics, "King Jesus You are victorious, You are King Jesus You are victorious". Sung by a choir of children. The power and anointing in this final 2 minutes of the song bursts through. There is nothing quite so beautiful and pure as children singing of the power of their creator.

Your victories are my victories

At some point, most of us will feel jealous of someone, spiritually. It is easier, more subtle, and perhaps doesn't seem so bad to be jealous of someone's faith, their gifts, victories or even love for God. Or perhaps you just want to be more like someone.

Now, just to clarify - it is very good to have role models. It is good to learn from each other, to desire to grow more, and to be challenged by others too. But what I'm talking about here is different. And it is dangerous.

This is something I'm dealing with and have struggled with in the past too. I found that jealousy can show up in frustration, but underneath jealousy is a feeling of being short-changed. This often seems to be the root of the problem, and spiritually we feel like God is short changing us. I found that to be the case of a friend of mine. After a lot of spiritual growth in him I felt that I'd been short-changed.

The truth is that God has made us all unique and characterised us differently. We therefore have unique relationships with Him. Also we are all on different journeys and in different seasons of life. Sometimes we are growing we just don't even realise. And sometimes we have an impact without knowing.

But even after all this, it wasn't enough. So God led me to this awesome passage - 1 Thessalonians 2:19-20. Here, Paul is writing to the Thessalonians and he's basically saying how awesome they are! "After all, what gives us hope and joy, and what will be our proud reward and crown as we stand before our Lord Jesus when He returns? It is you! Yes, you are our pride and joy" (NLT).

In this letter, Paul goes on and on about how much their faith as encouraged other churches and how much he thanks God for them. Through this, God showed me that in His family, we share victories. Jealousy falls. Your faith is my joy. Your victories are my victories.

Conflict in church (five-fold bashing)

"I think the worship should be more like this!" "All we do is Bible study!" "We don't do enough Bible study!" "Why aren't we reaching the lost?" "No-one cares for the poor!" "All we're doing is following some human agenda!"

Conflict in church. We see it all the time. Anyone with sense would say the obvious: that getting a whole load of people together with different personalities, tastes and cultures will inevitably lead to disagreements. However, we can say more than this.

Beyond the superficial disagreements ("I've had enough of tea and quiche!"), I believe much disagreement comes from the perspectives that come from the five-fold gifts of leadership. To find out about these, read the pentagon blog. And these disagreements can be more serious and more legitimate.

For example, the apostle might say to the teacher, "all you care about is reading the book! You've missed what God is doing in our city!" The prophet might say to the pastor, "perhaps you should try listening to God more than other people!" And the evangelist may say, "all you care about is the people inside the church! What about those on the outside!"

The truth about balance: many try and resolve the conflict by trying to strike a balance. "We don't want too much of this or too much of that" - when actually we need more of everything. But more importantly, things need to come in the right order and with the right basis and purpose.

As mentioned in the pentagon blog, the church must be lead with an apostolic leadership at the helm, along with the prophetic. This maintains the focus that Jesus prayed: "Your Kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven". Heaven on earth. This doesn't mean we want less of the rest of the five-fold. What it means is the nature of the other giftings must be such that they fit around this prayer and all visions that come from this prayer.

This means we will absolutely pursue good teaching, evangelism and pastoring and an apostle will encourage that, but always in the vain of "what is God doing here?" or "how is God's kingdom being established here?" Without being rooted in an apostolic ministry, teaching can turn into nothing more than an intellectual transaction rather than the life-giving spring it was designed to be. Prophecy can become a purposeless obsession with dreams and visions. Pastoring can become trying to please people and evangelism can become simply a way of filling up empty seats. As such all endeavours by any part must come around the pursuit of the Kingdom - heaven on earth. To do an activity for its own sake is very short sighted.

Of course, this is where the conflicts are most likely to arise - where each part is not in its rightful place and when the apostolic is not at the base. Where there are distortions, people don't see the other groups as in conflict or tension - remember what they are against is the distortions of them. Of course, what is also essential is that people have humility to be led. The apostle must lead and the others must accept his or her leadership (not in a dominating way), and not expect their ministries to be the "main thing". (The ministry of the apostle is not the "main thing" by the way - the "main thing" is the Kingdom of God).

As such, many conflicts can be resolved. There will still be some inevitable tensions as each five giftings (and therefore perspectives) seek to model a church which works best. However we do not avoid these conflicts, but seek to resolve them with the aid of love, humility, patience....basically good character (or the fruits of the Spirit, if you like).

Life Shapes: Pentagon part 2

(3) The evangelist. The meaning of evangelist is literally "bringer of good news". We take this to mean "preacher of the gospel", but let us not forget that ultimately the evangelist is a story teller - who is telling the story (true story) of what God has done. This includes testimonies but ultimately all testimony points to (and comes from) what Jesus has done by dying and rising again. When considering the church being built on the apostle's ministry, the need for the evangelist to join him in his vision is obvious. In order to bring the Kingdom to this world, God's story must be told to those who don't yet know it.

(4) The pastor. We usually use "pastor" when describing a generic church leader or "minister". The truth is a pastor is someone with a pastoral anointing. One who cares for the flock and enables them to reach their potential. This may not be someone with organisational skills or someone who can preach (as most "pastors" do). Someone who is not officially in leadership can be a pastor (as with any of the five-fold). They simply need a pastor's heart. This is also an essential part of an apostolic ministry. What does heaven look like? The sick are cared for. People help each other. People grow and help each other grow.

(5) The teacher. The teacher is one who helps us understand the word of God. He or she is a guide (not in the same way as a prophet), based on the truth found in scripture. A teacher is vital in the ministry to unpack the Bible for us to see God as revealed there. They also teach us how to live according to the Bible, show us who we are according the Bible and show us insights from it. It is of course vital that the church has understanding of God and His world. Finally, they stop the church ending up in dangerous theological ground.

Although many may be given just one of these gifts, some can have more than one. It is helpful for an apostle to be sufficient in the other four, in order to have some insight into the vision of the Kingdom of God. It is not clear from the Bible whether or not every person has one of these or whether they are specifically for leaders. I believe that all who know Him have at least one (even if they don't use it yet), as I believe in some sense God calls all His people to be leaders, leading by being salt and light in a dark world.

Life Shapes: Pentagon part 1

The pentagon, being 5 sides, represents the five-fold gifts of leadership in the ministry of the church. That's not to say all gifts, talents and anointings are limited to these, but simply that these are a complete framework of leadership gifts (which others will be based around).

The five-fold gifts come from Ephesians 4:11 "It was he who gave some to be (1) apostles, some to be (2) prophets, some to be (3) evangelists, and some to be (4) pastors and (5) teachers." Ephesians 4 talks about the growth and maturity of the body of Christ (the church) and tells us God gave us these five in order for growth to happen.

So what do these five areas of ministry mean?

(1) The apostle. The original meaning from the Greek word (apostolos) means "sent one", and carries the meaning of one who is "sent on a mission". Looking at the ministry of Jesus, it is no surprise then that the apostle is the one who comes first. Jesus only did what He saw His Father doing (John 5:19) and as such was a man on a mission in this world. Of course, His ultimate mission was to save the world by His death and resurrection, however His life's mission was seen in the second line of the Lord's prayer - "Your Kingdom come". His frequent talk and parables about the Kingdom of God emphasises this. And it seems this is the call of the apostle - he or she is sent out into the world, to bring the Kingdom.

(2) The prophet. This we can see throughout the Old Testament as God gave us the "prophets" - those who God spoke directly to, with a message for the people. In Jesus (who, by the way, perfectly embodies all of the five-fold), we see the prophetic not only as God the Father speaks through Him, but also as He speaks with authority to change situations (the commands to heal or the cursing of the fig tree). Prophecy (since Jesus) has been discussed by Paul in Corinthians as a spiritual gift. Books have been written on the prophetic, but for our purposes, all we will say is that despite the fact that God wants to speak to all of us, some He has called as prophets in order to hear from God concerning the leading of His people.

The New Testament says that the church is built on the ministry of the apostles and prophets - ie, it is the cornerstone. One way I have heard the two described is that the apostles are concerned with stepping out and bringing heaven (God's Kingdom) to earth, and prophets are concerned with "seeing" what's in heaven, and speaking it out on the earth. It is clear why the two are important, and why they should be at the helm. The next three follow.