Dear Pastor,
Are you hungry to see revival among your people as they establish a deeper, more passionate Christian commitment? If so, we have a proven training experience on hearing God's voice, with a 30-year track record which delivers the following results:
My word cautions you that you conduct yourself so that your prayers are not hindered. How do you interpret this concept? Do you think it means that the amount and intensity of your prayers remains the same, and that I will ignore them? Or does it mean that your prayers will diminish in frequency and intensity? So is this more about me or about you? I will never reject you, but it is possible for your love to wax cold. Have you ever observed a reluctance on my part to answer your fervent prayers? Have you ever seen the quality of your own prayer life decline?
Do you recall my sorrow I expressed over my people that I saw as sheep without a shepherd? Do you think of this as a one-time event? Truth is timeless and eternal. So just as new wine needing new wineskins and having other sheep who are not of this fold, sorrow over sheep without a shepherd is an ongoing truth. Do you meet people who have the same spiritual longings that you do, but without awareness, the ability to articulate them, or make an intelligent response? How many people do you know that you would describe this way? I’m still looking for laborers for the harvest.
I received the following email from Isabelle Declercq, one of our CLU graduates. She has seen God wage war in the heavenlies and defeat the Coronavirus. His message is in the clouds that she beheld and she tells her story below. It reminds me of the verse: The heavens declare His righteousness, And all the peoples have seen His glory (Ps. 97:6)!
Have you heard of magical thinking? This term is not a compliment and it is used to describe people, particularly the primitive and uneducated, who draw cause and effect relationships where there are none, and attempt to obtain desired outcomes through ineffective actions. Have you ever heard this term applied to believers? There are those who pray to get their own way, but your faith, properly understood and practiced, is not magical.
Are you on a search for truth? Where do you look? Do you look in only a few places where you are confident you will find it, such as the Bible? Yet the concept of searching implies that you are not yet in full possession. It also implies that you don’t know exactly where to find what you want, or you wouldn’t consider it a search. Have you ever found truth in unexpected places? You should find this to be a pleasant surprise. Can you accept the concept that all truth comes from me? I promised to lead you into all truth. You can trust the leading of my Spirit to do this.
Do you expect people to behave a certain way based on their background and belief systems? Are you usually right about this? Do you have a crisis of faith when you see unbelievers exhibiting righteous behavior or believers being mean? You should rejoice in righteous behavior no matter who does it, and the story of the Good Samaritan illustrates this point. What about believers who don’t live up to their creeds? Do you think they should know better? Do you? A transformed life takes longer to accomplish than a profession of faith.
Are you familiar with the passage that all things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to his purpose? Do you find this verse to be a comfort in difficult times, or is it something you would rather quote to others? This verse is roughly equivalent to saying that what comes to you is for you. This implies that there is redemptive purpose in everything. Do you have the faith to believe this? Is this obvious? Is it something that you are consciously aware of, or do you struggle to find the good purpose in some things?
Do you think of intimacy only in terms of sex? This is the position of your culture, but your culture does not comprehend transcendent things. There is a dimension of intimacy that is human and spiritual without being sexual. At the end of my life on earth, I told my disciples that I called them no longer servants, but friends. I described the depth of my love for them by saying there was no greater love than to lay down your life for your friends. Is there anyone for whom you would lay down your life? Is there anyone who would do it for you?
Have you heard the saying, that when the student is ready, the teacher will appear? Have you ever experienced this in your own life, that when you were prepared to receive some truth, that a convincing demonstration of it was at hand? Do you think the converse is true as well, that when the teacher is ready the student will appear? Have you received an impartation of truth and then found yourself surrounded by others who were receptive to it? I will provide you with both teachers and students on your journey. It is blessed both to give and to receive. Your time is always at hand.
