Welcome to Leaving Laodicea
The Survival Manual for the Coming Underground Church
393: Right Thing + Wrong Time = Wrong Thing
When Peter stands up in the midst of the 120 and declares that Judas must be replaced, he was speaking the truth (Acts 1:20). It is true from Scripture that God intended to someday replace Judas. But that doesn’t mean it was the right time to decide who the Lord had chosen to become part of the Twelve. What happened then, and what often happens with each of us, is that we decide a course of action, present God with two options we have chosen, and then ask Him to choose which of our choices is His will. And this assumes it was His will for us to do what we’ve determined to do in the first place.
The lesson from Acts 1:15-26 is that doing the right thing, at the wrong time, is the wrong thing. Everytime. No matter how much it feels like the right thing and the right time.
And it often takes years to undo the mistakes we make for the right reason, or so we think. Remember, spiritual maturity is asking God what His will is, and not trying to force Him to choose the lesser of two evils that we have chosen. Do you want to know more about this classic error of presumption? Then keep listening.
Day One: Learning to Hear His Voice
Today is the first day of a 40 day adventure.
No, this adventure is not about a mission trip to Haiti or a hike down the Appalachian Trail. This 40 day adventure is a time specifically set aside to discover more about the Lord and to specifically learn to hear Him speak. That’s right, it’s my desire during this adventure to draw closer to the Lord than I’ve ever been before and to learn to hear His voice. I’m not talking about hearing Him speak to me through His Word, which is wonderful. But I long for something more personal, more intimate. I long to hear Him speak to me personally as He has others in Scripture, and as He has also done for me several times in the past. In fact, those time of hearing His voice are some of the high points in my spiritual life.
I know what many of you may be thinking.
“Oh, here we go again. It looks like somebody else is wanting to move beyond the sufficiency of Scripture. I guess Scripture’s not enough for Steve and now He wants more than God has already provided for him. Maybe he wants an encounter like the one described in The Shack or to hear God speak like Sarah Young claims in Jesus Calling or something like that. Doesn’t he know that God only speaks today through His Word?”
No, I don’t know that. In fact, I see many places in Scripture where God speaks to His children in other ways than through the Scriptures. Let me give you a few examples.
The Damascus Road
In Acts 9, we find Jesus verbally speaking to Paul on the Damascus Road. It wasn’t just a command or some proclamation declared from heaven. It was a conversation where both He and Paul spoke to each other. And in this conversation Jesus did not only speak through the written Word, which for Paul would have been the Old Testament. Instead, He verbally communicated His personal message and will to Paul that could not be found from reading, for example, the Psalms or Isaiah.
Acts 9:4-6 – Then he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” And he said, “Who are You, Lord?” Then the Lord said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads.” So he, trembling and astonished, said, “Lord, what do You want me to do?” Then the Lord said to him, “Arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”
“Got it,” you say. “But that’s the apostle Paul. He was an apostle and could therefore hear God speak to him verbally in ways He doesn’t do today, to anybody, ever. You and I are not apostles. We don’t even have apostles anymore. So how God spoke to Paul back then was just for Paul— and not for us today.”
Really? So how do we explain God speaking, just a few verses later, to a non-apostle named Ananias? He was not an apostle like Paul. He was just a faithful disciple of Jesus who lived in Damascus that God had chosen for a specific task. And how was Ananias to know what specific task God had in store for him unless, somehow and in some way, God spoke to him personally.
392: The 240 Hour Prayer (and Fasting) Meeting
When the 120 met together after the ascension of Jesus, there were some logistics we often overlook when considering their 240 hour prayer meeting (Acts 1:14). For example:
What about food?
Did they go home to eat several times a day?
Did someone have food catered in to them?
Did they go to Wal-Mart or McDonald’s daily?
Did their family drop off lunch bags each day?
Or did they go on an extended fast?
And if so, what was that like?
I believe it was a time of prayer and fasting— and not just prayer alone. After all, that’s what Jesus expected them to do (Matt. 6:16-18). Which raises one last question: What can fasting do for me today? Or, why should I fast since fasting seems to be passe in the church today? Consider the following:
Fasting was an expected discipline in both the Old and New Testament eras.
Fasting and prayer can restore the loss of the “first love” for your Lord and result in a more intimate relationship with Christ.
Fasting is a biblical way to truly humble yourself in the sight of God.
Fasting enables the Holy Spirit to reveal your true spiritual condition, resulting in brokenness, repentance, and a transformed life.
Fasting will encourage the Holy Spirit to quicken the Word of God in your heart and His truth will become more meaningful to you.
Fasting can transform your prayer life into a richer and more personal experience.
Fasting can result in a dynamic personal revival in your own life and make you a channel of revival to others.
In summary, fasting opens up your spirit in ways that are hard to explain unless you’ve experienced it.
Have you ever considered adding fasting to your prayer life? You should. You really should.
391: Questions from the Infant Church
As we begin to look at how the Holy Spirit moved in the lives of ordinary men in the book of Acts, we are confronted with a few questions. These questions have to do with the character of the men Jesus chose to fulfill the mandate He gave to His church. And what was that mandate?
Acts 1:8 – “But you shall receive power (dúnamis) when (what) the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
Then, the first set of questions:
Has this mandate changed for the church?
Does it still apply today?
If so, how are we doing?
Have you received the power Jesus promised?
And how is that power being manifested in your life?
Do you see that kind of power in the church today?
If not, do you ever wonder why?
How would you answer these questions about the church? How would you answer the ones that are more personal in nature? The ones about you and the power, or lack of power, in your life? Do you see a disconnect between the account of the church in Acts and the place you worshipped last Sunday? Me too. But what are we going to do about it?
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390: Sometimes History Hurts
When we try to determine the exact day that Jesus was crucified, either Friday or Wednesday, we come face to face with an ugly fact about the history of the church. That ugly history shows the depth of the church’s hatred for the Jews during the first and second century, much like the church’s hatred of the Jews today. Church councils were called to try to determine a uniform date for Easter in order for it to not correspond with the Jewish Passover (the 14th of Nisan), even if they are, in reality, intrinsically tied together.
For example, the Council of Nicea (325 BC) unanimously ruled that the Easter festival should be celebrated throughout the Christian world on the first Sunday after the full moon following the vernal equinox (March and September); and if the full moon should occur on a Sunday, and thereby coincide with the Passover festival, Easter should be commemorated on the following Sunday.
Why try so hard to make sure no Christian festival corresponds to its Jewish counterpart, even if by accident? Antisemitism. But there’s so much more to this debate. You have the two Passovers during the passion week, the rantings of Emperor Constantine, and the excommunication of the Quartodecimans. Sound intriguing? Do you want to know more? Then keep listening.
389: Life in the Kingdom
If we were honest, we’d have to admit that the picture of life in the church as revealed in Scripture and our own personal church experience are not always the same. In fact, they often seem like polar opposites, night and day. Consider what Paul said about life in the church:
Ephesians 3:20-21 – Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works (where) in us, to Him be glory (where) in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
And yet, knowing this, we still struggle with trying to find the answer to the questions that trouble us the most.
Why can’t we keep our children involved in church?
Why can’t our children hold to Biblical morals?
Why can’t our children make Godly decisions?
Why can’t the church make a noticeable difference in our nation, culture and family?
Why can’t we get victory over our own sins?
Why can’t we see Jesus move in our lives like He did in the past?
Is there an answer to these questions? Is what we’re experiencing in church, Sunday after Sunday, all there is? Or is there something missing? And if so, what is it? How do I find it? What can I do?
If you want to know the answer to these important questions, then keep listening.
388: The True Intent of the Law
In the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus reveals to us what life is like in His Kingdom, He contrasts the Old Testament Law with its true intent. And it does this by saying, “You have heard that it was said to those of old… but I say unto you.” Or, to put it another way, “You have an understanding about the Law and what it governs, but I want to show you the true intent of the Law and what it really means.”
The Law governed external actions. Or so it seemed to them and to us. But in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus shows us the true intent of the Law by contrasting it to the human understanding of it. In other words, only actions matter in the mind of men. But with God, everything comes from the heart.
“For the LORD does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7).
Do you want to know more about having a heart that is pleasing to the Lord? Good. Then keep listening.
387: What is the “Baptism of the Spirit”?
The baptism of, or with, the Holy Spirit is defined as:
“The Baptism of, or with, the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God coming upon the Believer, taking possession of his faculties, imparting to him gifts not naturally his own, but which qualify him for the service to which God has called him.”
But this just raises more questions for us to ponder. For example:
What does it mean to be baptized in the Holy Spirit?
Is it a command from God?
Is it something we should actively seek?
What does it look like?
How is it obtained?
And is it even Biblical?
Want to know more? Then keep listening as we discover the truth about this controversial subject.
386: What Does “Praying in the Spirit” Mean?
Twice in Scripture we are commanded to “pray in the Spirit.” We see this first in Ephesians 6:18 and again in Jude 1:20. We are not told to pray “with” the Spirit or “to” the Spirit, but pray “in” the Spirit.
Have you ever wondered what that means? Is it praying in tongues as Paul referenced in 1 Corinthians 14:15? No. That’s something entirely different.
Is it something that I do or is it something the Holy Spirit does through me? Where does my responsibility end and His activity begin? What is the essence of “praying in the Spirit”? Am I praying for what I want or is the Spirit praying through me according to the will of the Father? And if that’s the case, what’s the content of that prayer? Am I an active participant in my prayer life? Or do I just kick back and let the Spirit take over? And again, if so, to what extent?
Ah, so many questions. Do you want to know the answers? Good. Then keep listening.
385: The Whole Tongue Controversy Explained
Ever since the resurgence of the charismatic movement in the last century, there has been incredible controversy in church on the issue of spiritual gifts, especially the gift of speaking in tongues (1 Cor. 10:8). One faction believes it is a sign of a deeper relationship with the Lord that everyone should seek but only few find. You hear this when statements like this are made: “You must receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit as evidenced by speaking in tongues.”
Then there is the other side that throws all the uncomfortable gifts of the Spirit out the window for fear of being called strange, loopy or out of control. And these camps are entrenched, like opposing armies set for war.
But what is the truth? And how can we know from Scripture which side is right?
Simply put, the answer to this great controversy is found in the singular and plural use of the Greek word “glṓssa” – and nothing more. When you get this definition under your belt, the entire controversy vanishes into thin air, like a man-made mirage.
Something About Us
This is a collection of the many questions I have struggled with and the answers I have found regarding the relationship between authentic faith in Christ and much of what is portrayed today as Biblical Christianity. Especially with the coming darkness looming over all of us, including the church.
Come with me. It should be a wild ride!
To find out more about us and what we believe, just continue reading…