Nevertheless – Ananias

Remember the prophet Ananias (Acts 9:10-19) that God sent to pray for Saul (soon to become Paul) to restore his sight, after Saul's Damascus Road experience? I love the conversation Ananias has with God before he goes to pray for Saul.

God: Ananias, go pray for Saul of Tarsus to restore his sight.

Ananias: Um, God, about that. I googled Saul of Tarsus, and you should see his Facebook page! This guy's been persecuting the church big time in Jerusalem, and he's come to do the same thing here in Damascus. You really oughta do your research better.

What was God's response? “Oh gee, thanks, Ananias, you really kept me from making a big mistake on this one. Good thing you're on my team. Anything I can bless for you while I'm here? Ok then, I'm out...”

Not quite. See verses 15-16. God says, “GO!” And he proclaims his calling on Paul's life. (Translation: “Nevertheless!”) He completely ignores all of Ananias' objections. The fascinating thing about this is, everything Ananias said about Paul was true. Ananias was right.

But God didn't care. His calling was bigger than the situation in Paul's life at that moment. And God's calling on your life is bigger than your current situation, too.

Nevertheless – Moses

When God gives us a calling, he really doesn't care about our excuses. We may have real, legitimate, reasons why God's calling/plan is a bad idea and just won't work. And we're free to express them to him, as long as we understand he'll complete ignore them. He ignores our excuses with, “Nevertheless, I will be with you,” and he repeats the calling.

Look at Moses (see Exodus 3:1 – 4:17). Although a former prince, he's on the run and a fugitive from Egypt, hiding out in the desert. God calls him to pop down to Egypt and lead a few million slaves to freedom. Moses has all sorts of legitimate reasons why this is a dumb idea and just won't work.

• “I'm a nobody.” (3:11)
• “The Israelites will say, 'Who sent you?' “ (3:13)
• “They'll never believe me.” (4:1)
• “I don't know to talk in a court of kings. And I stutter. There. I'm genetically deficient.” (4:10)

Although God does answer each of Moses' objections, he really doesn't care about them. He basically ignores them all in and just keeps saying, “Nevertheless, I will be with you.” As if that's supposed to be enough! And it actually is.

God doesn't mind any of Moses' whining. It's when Moses says flat-out, “no please send someone else” (4:13) that God gets angry (4:14).

If it's something God is calling us to do, God will take care of the details, big and small. His presence with us is enough. We just have to stay available and willing to take the leap.

Ending Petition, Beginning Proclamation

“A promise is the end of petition, and the beginning of proclamation.” – Graham Cooke

We pray in petitions when we ask God to do something. A petition is an asking. Petitions are good. Jesus told parables to encourage us to petition. See the parable of the persistent widow in Luke 18:1-8, for example. It begins, “Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.” God wants us to petition.

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” (Philippians 4:6)

Often, God gives us a promise about our situation before he actually acts to end or move in our situation. Sometimes it comes as a prophetic word from a friend or pastor. Other times he just drops it in our spirit, especially when we're reading his word.

At that point, it's the end of petition. God has said “yes”, and he has given us a promise, often about how he'll move in the situation. Very often though, his promises don't contain when, out of his great love for us.

Out of his great love for us, he gives us this opportunity to exercise faith and believe him and his promise in the face of our situation. And when we do believe God's promise in the face of the enemy's lies and spin about out situation, it spiritually pokes the enemy in the eye. And it shuts him up.

We still pray about our situation, but the prayer changes from petition to proclamation. We're no longer asking God to do something, we're praying back to him what he said he would do. And in the process, this proclaims his promise to the heavenlies. It gives any demons hoping and working for the contrary fair warning to get out of way. God is about to move.

This is how we practically apply our faith. Pray petitions until you get a promise, and then switch your prayers to proclamation.

Who You Gonna Believe?

Before we act in any given situation, the battle is already determined by who we believe about that situation. God says one thing, and the enemy says another.

Sometimes it can be hard to tell who's saying what, especially when our emotions are jacked up and in overload. But it's considerably easier to tell who's saying what if we stop and ask God.

“Lord, where are you in the middle of this mess?!?”

God has something to say about every human situation and circumstance. He talks in at least 3 ways:

(1) His Word. There is something, somewhere, in the Bible about what you're going through. His word contains promises. Finding and believing the right promise in his word, against the lie the enemy tells us in the situation, is often the strategy for victory.

(2) Your Spirit. God talks to us internally, in our thoughts. With practice, you can learn to discern which thoughts are God's, which are yours, and which are the enemy's lies.

(3) Others. God so values partnership with us that he often speaks to us through other people.

God never contradicts his word, so anything in our spirit or from others that does so isn't from God.

Often the battle is really in our hearts and our minds. When we choose to believe God's promises, especially when they seem impossible and the enemy's lies are so overwhelming, we give God permission to release his power into our situation. Not that he needs our permission, but he's a gentleman and he'll wait for it.

Choosing to believe God often doesn't (immediately at least) change the situation, but it often immediately changes our perception of it. Suddenly it doesn't seem so ominous or hopeless. That's how you have peace in the middle of a hurricane, or in the middle of an emotional nuke, that everyone else marvels at.

Jesus is our peace in the middle of our pain, if we choose to believe him instead of the circumstance.

Peace Keeping Vs Peace Making

For a long time (over a decade), I kept peace in my house at any price. I sacrificed what God told me was right for the sake of peace. I fled from conflict. If something was wrong in my house, and I knew addressing it would lead to a fight, I kept my mouth shut. If my wife was angry, even if her position was diametrically opposed to what God told me, I capitulated to keep peace in my home. And I was wrong do to so. This was cowardly. This was my sin. It devastated our home and our marriage. When I finally learned to stand up, there had been so much water under the bridge, that marriage ended in divorce. Not proud of it, not ok, just fact.

Many husbands do this. It's actually epidemic in our society. Ever hear the phrase, “Happy wife, happy life”? Or how about, “Ain't mama happy, ain't nobody happy”? These are demonic lies from the pit of hell. Do not let them become ingrained in your marriage.

Now, don't jump to the other extreme here. Husbands aren't supposed to be tyrants or overlords, either. Paul compared marriage to the relationship of Christ and the church. It's a helpful analogy. The husband should be the most sacrificial in the relationship, just like Christ sacrificed much more than we the church ever can. But Christ is definitely in charge, as should be the husband.

Matthew 5:9 doesn't say, “Blessed are the peace keepers.” It says, “Blessed are the peace makers.” This applies to all human relationships, not just marriage. Braving the argument and making peace by offering godly terms, boundaries, and solutions—that's what Jesus says is blessed in the beatitudes. Seek the Lord and come in unity to a godly resolution. But don't capitulate to what you know is wrong just to keep a false peace.

“That's Just the Way I Am”

This is my “favorite” ungodly belief. “Favorite” in quotes, because I absolutely hate it when people say this. “I'm just ____ and always will be.” Fill in the blank with your stuff. “Angry.” “Overweight.” “Controlled by out-of-control emotions”. “Addicted to alcohol, porn, drugs, sex, or TV.”

The next word out of my mouth is always, “No.” As kindly as possible, and in love, but “No.”

“No,” that's not who you are.

“No,” that's not how God made you.

“No,” that weakness is not stronger than the blood of Jesus and the work of His Spirit in your life.

Just plain, flat-out “No.”

No, that's not just the way you are. Well, it could be, that's a choice you make. But it doesn't have to be. Not by a long shot. Jesus died so it doesn't have to be.

Freedom is out there, if you want it. Getting free is simple, but it's not easy. It means dying to yourself. It means trusting God, and being willing to risk the consequences if He doesn't come through. Will you take the risk?

I Like Winning Banners

In Song of Solomon 6:4, the Lover (Jesus) calls his Beloved (you and me), “majestic as troops with banners.” Armies carry banners to celebrate battles they've won, and to show off to any potential future adversaries how BA they are.

In the next verse, Song of Songs 6:5, the Lover (Jesus) says to his Beloved (you and me), “Turn your eyes from me, they overwhelm me.” The Lover is saying to his Beloved, “Don't look at me like that – the love in your eyes for me is overwhelming me with emotion and I might lose it,” while he smiles and looks away, so she can't see he's blushing. Jesus is blushing!

When you don't feel like you're winning at all, when life has the better of you, when you're sure you're going down for the last time, when you can't feel His presence, but you still choose His ways and choose to trust Him instead of give place to fear and anxiety – in those times when you felt Nothing but chose Him anyway, He felt Everything! You just won a majestic banner, and He blushed.

I like winning banners. Out of His overwhelmingly great love for us, He puts us in those situations where we feel overwhelmed and don't feel Him at all. So we can win a banner. So we can choose to trust Him instead of dwelling in fear, out of our love for Him, and it makes Him blush!

On that Day when we finally see him face-to-face, the walls of our mansion in Heaven will be decorated with the banners we won in this life in those moments when we trusted Him instead of ourselves or something else. Wow.

Living Intentionally

“Since the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of God has been forcefully advancing and forceful men take hold of it.” Jesus said that in Matthew 11:12, in the middle of talking about John the Baptist. Some translations say “violent” instead of “forceful.” Kind of a weird verse, very counter-intuitive. I mean, after all, I didn't think we were supposed to be violent and forceful – what's that about?!?

We won't get into the Greek word translated “violent” or “forceful” in this post, but I think this speaks to intentionality. It's just so easy to drift through our busy life and forget the Kingdom and why we're here. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus didn't say, “go spread salt and light.” He said, “you are the salt and the light” (my paraphrase). I think Jesus doesn't want us to make a difference as much as be the difference.

Sometimes we try to advance the Kingdom of God by salesmanship. Especially in my country, we Americans are really good at Marketing. But John, in Revelation 12:11, says the saints (us) overcame the beast (the enemy) with (1) the blood of the Lamb, and (2) the word of their testimony. We really don't need to get any more complicated than that – walking in the authority he gave us, and telling people what he's done in our lives.

May you be blessed today as you hear the Holy Spirit in every place you find yourself and are the difference our Lord is calling you to specifically be. What difference is God calling you to be in your office? In your school? In your family? In your church? Tell me in the comments and let's talk about it.