Are WE In Charge of Utopia?

“Imagine” by John Lennon was a great song, with a resounding sentiment. It, much like the Israeli National Anthem, “Ha Tikvah”, expresses some of the finer, and most deeply rooted hopes of mankind. However, unlike “Ha Tikvah” it carries a fatal flaw, in that it presumes that mankind can create this Utopian existence by ourselves. It is true that we have been given the authority and responsibility to produce that kind of unity and order in the universe! That is why this dream beats within our hearts, and explains how people with only a basic spirituality can write such riveting poetry that calls to the dream within us! But without His spark of divine anointing it is SO not happening! It can't! It is very clear – given the current state of our world - that to be able to restore order to this badly screwed up universe we need the supernatural help of a Savior!

But – wait just a minute here - we have one - so what's the beef?! Somehow we have missed out on His help! Somehow we are not getting hold of or properly using His anointing! That is the deal. We – who consider ourselves to be the “Body of Christ” - the hands, feet and mouth piece of the Anointed One – have somehow gotten the thing all twisted up! We keep trying to “impart” His anointing to people, much as He did – but the problem is that we are not Him yet! What we need to do instead is to simply live the anointing in such a way that people come into contact with HIM - and let HIS ANOINTING flow through US – But HE is the One who must do the “Imparting”! What we manage to “impart” is usually too much of a mixed bag!

We must simply let Him live and love through us – because when He – the real Anointing – shows up, then HIS light shines on all our unreal places and causes real, deep, heartfelt repentance! Then our repentance – which is the turning away from our own ways of doing things, even religiously, and a seeking after HIS ways of doing things – puts us back into proper fellowship with Him! Then His anointing is able to flow out to others from that connection!

That is how it works! It is the ONLY way it can work! Our programs, which have taken the place of His presence in our lives, too often denies the anointing – because it teaches the Word but separates it from the Power of His Spirit! It does keep those who attend spiritually alive – but it can not cause them to thrive! Too often, therefore, we have become lethargic and terminally apathetic, similar to nursing home patients. Meaning that we are technically alive enough that no one can legally bury us yet, but not alive enough for our existence to really be considered living! We are just not well enough, healthy enough, vibrant enough to thrive and produce any kind of life anymore. We just sort of lay around consuming enough natural and spiritual “food” to “sustain life” in its most basic form – while anxiously waiting on the LORD to come get us out of here!

That is not the picture one gets from what is known as “The Great Commission”! There should be some activity here - but not just any activity! We should be actively living out what we claim to believe! We should be reproducing “little anointed-ones” - that is what the word “Christian” means! We should live in such a way that wherever we go we make His Anointing, by means of His Spirit, available to all who are hungrily seeking for abundant, real, Life. We should be wells of cold, fresh, pure water - for all to access.

Instead, most of what is peddled as “Christianity” now days, is a bunch of miserably burdened religious pickle-suckers who look as though a smile would cause their face to disintegrate! Or prideful, hateful prigs, who have turned church into some kind of religious “king of the hill” game! And has turned “assembling ourselves together with believers” into conforming to the rules of a blasted social club – which is full of cliques; or into a spiritual looking “pogrom” of enslaved, mindless, zombie-like “followers” - who follow anyone with a religious sounding doggy biscuit! Folks who haven't had an original thought in years, or if they did were too intimidated to express it! I mean, really folks, at some point we have to stop the incessant listening – to the bounty of Word - that the good men, like John Bevere, preach - and actually get off our tuckus and live some of it! Does anyone have a clue as to what I mean by that?!

We have become like the dead sea – much goes in but nothing goes out – and because there is no out-flow no life is ever possible! We can not just keep going to meetings, serving at meetings, and facilitating meetings! We have to assimilate what we get there and use it someplace else! We can't just keep recycling it back into the same cisterns, which then become cesspools of dead salt – unable to produce any sustainable, reproducible life! At some point the contents of all those meetings must be assimilated into our actual daily lives and shared with those who aren't getting fed like we are! It isn't about performance – it isn't about getting approval from the leadership – it isn't about putting a check or a gold star or an incentive sticker on our religious to-do lists! It is about returning to His glory and sharing it with the fallen world!

And when we get on fire with the wonder of that possibility enough to pursue Him for His power in our lives – then we will really live! And not only will we live, but we will be a conduit of His Life to others! His life expressed in His Power/Anointing! Not in the vague, ethereal, idealistic way it is currently being portrayed. Limp, impotent, powerless and lame! But in a thriving, overcoming, healing, extravagant, abundant rush of life-giving power - as pure water rushing in converts the desserts to forests and vineyards - from dusty, dry and lifeless to verdant and fruitful! We are to bring that water! We are to become that water!

At some point I got really “fed up” (pun intended) with being force fed Word - when I felt glutted beyond capacity already – but then being simultaneously denied outlets to use the spiritual energy which all that feeding produced! I began dying on the vine! I could feel myself turning into the dead-sea – I was salt and light alright – but nothing could get near me and live!

I see so many believers who have succumbed to this kind of over-feeding and under-leading! I was denied the outlets which I should have been allowed to pursue because well-meaning leadership thought me to be lacking - “not done enough” to suit them, not well-groomed enough into their image (which I can assure you I was not aspiring to be – not that they weren't fine examples, but they were not Yeshua, and not who God was trying to make me to be), they deemed me not spiritually “mature” enough, or too rough edged, etc. - the excuses were varied but strikingly similar, which I was given in answer to my constant pestering -  to be allowed to grow up in Messiah and be given some real authority! The excuses - er - "reasons" which I was given always centered around the belief that there was some lack which they all perceived - but was not able to help me with! However, apparently they didn't stop to get God's opinion on any of that, so He pulled me out from under the pile of religious prohibitions, under which they had buried me, and set my feet on the path which He intended for me to follow in the first place! I believe that path was supposed to run with those leaders for a season – but there came a place that we could run together no longer. I think that is how it supposed to be – it shouldn't be taken as rejection on my part, or offense on theirs! Oak trees need room to obtain full stature! That can't happen in the green house! We need to stop trying to bonsai everyone so we can keep a full house! 

I appreciate their careful attention to what they deemed to be important details! But one can obsess someone into religious oblivion! I know, because I have been there and survived to tell about it! But we don't have to keep making the same mistakes! Listen. I have insinuated this already, but I want to give a plain word of caution here. I did not get free by judging the mistakes of others! That will never happen! However, neither would freedom have been possible if I had refused to acknowledge mistakes when I saw them being made! There is a fine line. It has taken me some time to find the balance, to heal from the excesses and the neglectfulness which I experienced – to acknowledge and forgive the wrongs done to me and by me – and to find that place of forgiveness and peace in God where His Spirit and Anointing are found!

By His faithfulness, by His Spirit – I am healed and ready to continue to the next lap of this race - but I feel compelled to outline the pitfalls which I have encountered so that the generation behind me can perhaps avoid them! Because, “ain't nobody got time fo' that!” Seriously. Time is winding down. We can not afford to keep redesigning God's plan. We should simply find it and go with it!

That is what I have spent the bulk of my life trying to do. And by the grace of God I am getting somewhere! And I sense that I do not run alone, but I am joined by a great crowd of runners who are breaking free from the unnatural yokes of false religions to run after the freedom found in the Anointed One! What needs to happen in this next season or “compensation” is that all the particular paths of righteousness of all who believe should begin to converge into a unity that will allow our Messiah to return! It should begin to be ONE tremendous flow of fresh water that will bring life to the dry and thirsty ground! The world should begin to recognize us by our love! Love for God, for each other and for them! His love, that is said to be shed abroad in our hearts, and which we are commanded to shed abroad to the dying world!

I know I keep repeating myself....its a mom thing I think....but we really need to be about our Father's business instead of minding the business of everyone else, or even just minding our own! What will we choose to do with these last of last days? Who will we decide to be? Will we continue being religious fig bushes that look good, but do not bear fruit? Or will we go through the pruning which is necessary to produce His Fruit – His Life in us - in abundance? Fruit or toot? Which one will you choose? I think the toot will be given the boot in the end...and personally, I'd rather be given a hand! But to answer the question with which I began this writing – yes – we are in charge of restoring Utopia! The real question is – will we find and use the power required to live up to that calling?

Selah..... SCD 5/9/14