Lions and Liars and Thieves, OH MY! (Zechariah and Liars/Thieves)

“I looked again—and there before me was a flying scroll! He asked me, "What do you see?" I answered, "I see a flying scroll, thirty feet long and fifteen feet wide.” And he said to me, "This is the curse that is going out over the whole land; for according to what it says on one side, every thief will be banished, and according to what it says on the other, everyone who swears falsely will be banished. The LORD Almighty declares, 'I will send it out, and it will enter the house of the thief and the house of him who swears falsely by my name. It will remain in his house and destroy it, both its timbers and its stones.' " Zech. 5:1-4

Today’s blog is a bit unpleasant. However, the Spirit kept annunciating this Scripture a little more heavily than the others. I've got my serious face on. And so here it goes…

The time is quickly coming (and has come) when God will no longer seemingly overlook dishonesty. Sometimes it seems like we are getting away with dishonesty in our lives because we don’t really see any consequences. It appears as if God is overlooking our shrewdness, exaggerations, and below-board practices. We might even think in our hearts, “God loves me, forgives me and knows I am only human.” How quickly the Lord’s patience causes us to grow complacent towards the “small” ways we avoid truthful, straight-forward living. Ecclesiastes 8:11 says:

Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed quickly, therefore the hearts of the sons of men among them are given fully to do evil.

The time has come to stop taking His great mercy for granted. It is time to deal some deadly blows to the cancer of dishonesty in our lives. It’s time to pray for the healthy fear/awe of the Lord to overtake us, overtake our children, overtake our nation. Healthy fear of the Lord means we really believe that God sees all and knows all. He really does care how we live. He created us to only be able to thrive when we “love mercy, do justly, and walk humbly with Him.” (Micah 6:8) The next verse in Ecclesiastes says:

Even though a person sins and gets by with it hundreds of times throughout a long life, I'm still convinced that the good life is reserved for the person who fears God, who lives reverently in his presence, and that the evil person will not experience a "good" life. No matter how many days he lives, they'll all be as flat and colorless as a shadow—because he doesn't fear God.

When healthy fear of the Lord (i.e., believing God is good and He’s bigger than me) is well-established in our hearts, we actually fear disappointing Him. We fear breaking fellowship with Him. Fear of the Lord makes us realize that while all things are permissible, not all things permit face to face living with God. Lying and stealing banish us from living openly in His Presence. Dishonesty of any sort invites the destroying curse into our midst that will surely destroy the life or the house we are building right down to our very timbers and stones.

Having just returned from a vacation to Mexico, I witnessed this unfortunate principle on a wide-scale. Because corrupt practices are the norm, the country lies in poverty. The reason is if we, for example, feared climbing into a taxi lest the rate suddenly double without recourse, why would investors and entrepreneurs trust they could build their businesses there? If everyone from the taxi-drivers to the highest officials would say what they mean and mean what they say, despise manipulative bribes, and allow the rule of law to serve justice, then Mexico might stand amongst the most prosperous of countries. (And may our country take heed lest we think we are immune! Nothing but the fear of the Lord will restore us!)

In direct opposition to the fear of the Lord, there is unhealthy fear. Unhealthy fear is hell’s greatest fuel. Dishonesty is a gate of hell fueled by this kind of fear. When we are tempted towards dishonest gain, it’s important to discern the unhealthy fear energizing our hearts toward lying. Unhealthy fear makes us believe, “I am on my own and must therefore do whatever it takes to promote and protect myself.”

When it comes down to it, what do we really believe? Do we believe we’re better off trusting in a few cheap tricks, thereby forfeiting God’s favor? Or do we believe God really is for us—really is with us—and we are therefore better off forfeiting our measly small-change cheats in exchange for life fully charged by Him? His name is Spirit of Truth. Do we really think He can abide with anything less than the undefiled truth? If indeed we are born-again children of the Spirit of Truth, let us fear nothing except a life banished from His Presence.

So now what? What are we to do? It’s really quite simple. It’s the same thing I told my boys the other day: never ever ever ever ever never ever ever ever ever never ever ever ever ever never ever ever ever ever never ever ever ever ever NEVER be afraid to be honest and do the right thing. And, also prayer is always good…

God help me. I want all forms of dishonesty to be like a foreign language to me. I want honesty to be my rule—my first reaction—my very nature. Spirit of Truth, cause me to cherish truthful living above the fear of missing out. I pray these things not only for me, but for our entire nation. Let the spirit of the fear of the Lord fall upon those in government, business, education, churches, families, media, and the entertainment arenas. Let revival begin with revived fear of the Lord, and let it begin with me.

Note: Here are the links to two chapters out of my book The Coram Deo Secret if you would like to read more about The Fear of the Lord and Honesty...

http://marisarickerson.com/CoramDeoFearofLord.aspx

http://marisarickerson.com/CoramDeoHonesty.aspx

Eat—Pray—Love… OR …Pray—Fast—Give? (Zechariah and Fasting)

I understand the best-selling book, Eat—Pray—Live, is coming out soon as a movie starring Julia Roberts. They asked me first, but since I hadn’t read the book yet they had to go with her. But just as well, since now I’ll have time to write this enlightening blog. In my mind, the words Eat—Pray—Live stand in contrast to the three basic disciplines Jesus talked about in Matthew 6: Pray—Fast—Give. He said that when, not if, we do those three things with right motives (i.e., as personally ministering to and behalf of Jesus Himself) that we will reap untold rewards. Regarding fasting, I love how the book of Zechariah puts it:

“Was it really for me that you were fasting? And even now in your holy festivals, aren’t you eating and drinking just to please yourselves?” (7:5-6)

Ouch. Let’s not let do something as painful as fasting, and let it all be in vain, right? However, many Christians have erroneously believed that fasting is an OT thing of the past. We are so bad about that, aren’t we? We say we believe the Bible, but really, do we? Do we believe the things that happened in it should be regularly happening with us? Or have we relegated the weirder spiritual stuff as things that only happened in the “Bible Days”?

In fact, let’s digress deeply and do a quick self-assessment. I am going to rattle off a list of the Top Ten Weird Spiritual Stuff. Let’s see how many we believe are for today: Fasting, Demonic oppression, Tongues (oh come on, you just knew I had to throw that in), Healing (as a common and expected occurrence), Miracles-Signs-Wonders (as common and expected occurrences), God Speaking through gifts of Prophesy, Dreams, Visions, (all as common and expected occurrences--I have three boys so I am quite aware of the need to repeat myself to make a point), Words of Knowledge and Wisdom (knowing something without knowing how, and yes I am going to count those as two=).

Things on this Top Ten list were regularly experienced by the first Christians. That was a regular part of church life for them. They gathered together, praying and fasting, expectantly seeking the Holy Spirit to minister through them, of course in an orderly manner. (I threw that last part in for my sweet Baptist friends who are having cows right now. I know cuz’ I used to have some big ol' cows, too. Go ahead and have ‘em, but then re-read the book of Acts as if it’s your first time, k? Love you=)

So Hmmm. What happened? I’ll tell you what happened. The Sophistication Stronghold took over the Westernized churches. I just made that up. But if you think about it, we think of witnessing as intellectualizing about Jesus to others. Whereas, Jesus and His followers witnessed by DEMONSTRATING His powerful love. In fact, I wonder if there is a single instance in the New Testament of someone coming to Jesus without witnessing a powerful demonstration of His love and might? (i.e., miracle, healing, word of knowledge, etc.) I don’t know about you, but I’ll trade in my Sophistication for The Raw Power of God any day! I think the harassed and hurting masses, who need the true Jesus instead of our sophisticated religiosities, will agree with me.

And thus, the need for prayerful fasting. A church that fasts is a church that says, “We exchange our power for Your power. We lay down our ineffectual sophisticated solutions for the highly effectual Power of God. We lay down all that we have in order to gain all that You have, Jesus.”

Note: If you would like to read more about fasting, I believe I just figured out how to give you the link to a chapter out of my book The Coram Deo Secret. It’s an entire chapter about fasting with more links to more books. This makes me so happy—the thought of having to rewrite that big mama was making me weary and heavy laden. Ok, so let’s give this a whirl: http://marisarickerson.com/CDeoFasting.aspx

I Will Dwell in the Midst of You (Zechariah and Revival)

My favorite leaders and teachers are all saying the same thing: the only way out of our country’s growing moral and economic bankruptcy is another great revival and awakening. We are no longer self-sufficient to pull ourselves out of this mess.

What is revival? If enough believers pray and fast for God’s Kingdom to come and be established over all the strongholds of our nation, and revival comes, will we know what it is? I often ask God, What is revival? What will it be like? The second chapter of Zechariah gives a glimpse of what revival looks like to God:

“For I, says the Lord, will be to her a wall of fire round about, and I will be the glory in the midst of her. For thus said the Lord of hosts, after [His] glory had sent me [His messenger] to the nations who plundered you--for he who touches you touches the apple or pupil of His eye…Sing and rejoice, O Daughter of Zion; for behold, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of you, says the Lord. And many nations shall join themselves to the Lord in that day and shall be My people. And I will dwell in the midst of you, and you shall know (recognize and understand) that the Lord of hosts has sent me [His messenger] to you… Be still, all flesh, before the Lord, for He is aroused and risen from His holy habitation.” Zech 2:5, 8, 10-13

Revival is God in the midst of us. Revival is God’s glory (i.e., all that He has and is) readily manifesting and dwelling amongst us. Revival is being in awe-awareness of God’s Presence like a wall of fire around us. Revival is having true experiential knowledge and understanding of His Christ. Revival is many people, even whole nations, becoming joined—united—married to Christ, and Him dwelling in the midst of us. Revival is the silencing of humanity’s flesh as it realizes there is no weaseling out of His gaze. Revival is the Lord’s manifest Presence being aroused and risen from His holy habitation and coming to dwell in our midst.

A hunger and a thirst for revival should be our deepest longing. One of my favorite verses is found in the last chapter of the Bible: “The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’” (Rev. 22:17) Simply put, that’s our job. That’s our cry. That’s our single prayer. I believe we will see revival—we will see Jesus be aroused and arise from His holy habitation to come dwell in our midst—if we, the Bride, regularly put aside our food as an act of crying out to God, “Come! We need You more than food, water ….air!” I like how the Amplified Bible says it:

“The [Holy] Spirit and the bride (the church, the true Christians) say, Come! And let him who is listening say, Come! And let everyone come who is thirsty [who is painfully conscious of his need of those things by which the soul is refreshed, supported, and strengthened]; and whoever [earnestly] desires to do it, let him come, take, appropriate, and drink the water of Life without cost.”

Today, consider skipping just one meal to allow the cry of the Spirit inside of you to spring up: COME JESUS!

Zucchini or Zechariah?

Several days ago I was awakened early in the morning, and in my minds’ eye I saw the word “Zechariah” written on a path. At first I thought the word was “Zucchini.” It was pretty early. Zucchini bread would have been yummy. A fleeting thought suggested that I sneak over to my neighbor’s house and grab a few from her amazing garden… But in an instant my mind refocused and upon closer inspection I saw that it was the word, “Zechariah.”

Being the super-spiritual person that I am, I sprang out of bed and did a 2 hour study of Zechariah at 5:00am…NoT. I actually went back to sleep and didn’t remember the whole thing until I was chauffeuring my kids around later that day. I guess you could say it appears I’ve lost a bit of the hunger. No, not hunger for zucchini bread. Hunger for the whispers and workings of the Holy Spirit. Several years ago, the hunger really would have driven me out of bed at first sign that God was speaking.

Actually, it’s not that I have the lost hunger—I have been an extreme seeker of God’s face for almost a decade now. God is my life, my breath, my (zucchini) bread, my water, my song. In fact I have even written a 500 page book about it: The Coram Deo Secret. (Seriously, it’s 500 pages. I know, scary.) But the fact still remains that right now I feel a bit jaded. Jaded sounds so harsh, doesn’t it? But over these last few years, the process of practicing true active faith in a supernatural God who abides inside of me has left me feeling a bit… jaded. I believe the main reason for this is that He is teaching me the difference between true faith and presumption. Second Corinthians 4:8-9 (MSG) says it best: “I've been surrounded and battered by troubles, but I’m not demoralized (just a bit jaded); I’m not sure what to do, but I know that God knows what to do; I’ve been spiritually terrorized, but God hasn't left my side; I've been thrown down, but I haven't broken.” But that’s a story for another blog…or maybe another book…

So, as I finished running my kids’ around, I contemplated, “Lord, why was the word Zechariah written on a path?” It suddenly dawned on me that God knew I had just downloaded the free Spoken Word audio Bible app on my Iphone to use when I did my walk-jogging (wogging—just not while blogging). Yes, I absolutely believe God is into Iphone apps. Jesus is intimately by my side and interested in my interests, even as I seek to make His interests my foremost interests. Nothing is irrelevant to Him. Our love relationship is mutual, dynamic, synergistic…REAL. And He wanted me to use my new App to listen to His book of Zechariah while wogging along my path in order to glean truths that would further my journey along the path of life. I really, really like sappy endings like that, don’t you?

And that’s the problem. Nothing worth having comes all wrapped up in tidy sappy packages. As always, I began to doubt the whole thing really happened. Where there is room for faith, there is room for doubt. That’s why it’s called the fight of faith. Receiving from God—practicing true faith—is messy business. He has been increasing my capacity for messiness. Which as a mother of three boys, you’d think that would be a given. He has been weaning me from needing to have all the loose ends figured out, even if that means I presumptuously fill them in myself, before I act. And when all this begins to happen, jadedness happens.

I decided to tell my neighbor about the incident (yes the same one who almost got her zucchinis snatched—well actually she only has 5 pound cucumbers right now) and she exclaimed, “Oh my goodness! I am reading the One Year Bible and just made it to Zechariah!” I really love my neighbor. Having her ensures that I will successfully fulfill at least one commandment every day (for those of you who need help that would be “love thy neighbor”). I knew my beloved neighbor was giving me just the confirmation I needed. Indeed, that 14-chapter, second-from-the-end OT book was right where God wanted me

So I immediately donned my wogging apparel, and do you want to know something crazy? From the time I started until the time I finished my wog, I EXACTLY, I mean EXACTLY listened to the book of Zechariah. I heard the last word the very second I stepped into my yard after my run. Now that was enough to spook even me a little bit. How’d God do that? He really does know our beginning and our end! He really is our very own personal Alpha and Omega. He not only knows our entire path, He knows our every step. And when He gives us signs it’s so that we will pay careful attention. Since then, I have been logging in many sweaty miles over the book of Zechariah the past few weeks. So, if you’ll come back I will be sharing some of what I’ve learned in my next few blogs.

P.S. I really intended to be a bite-sized blogger in the midst of this twitter-infested generation, but I’ll try better next time.

P.S.S. Did I really just title my very first blog ever, Zucchini or Zechariah?