true love

Brutally Honest Love

Keeli Black and WhiteOne of the greatest joys of being a husband is boasting about my wife.  My favorite preacher on the planet is my bride.  Keeli boldly goes where few dare.  This isn’t just when she ministers to hundreds at a time, but she also demonstrates valiant boldness when speaking to individuals.  Most of the time, I’m thinking, “I wouldn’t say that to someone.” She can be brutally honest and simultaneously loving.  She has made I Corinthians 13 a reality… Especially the passage that states, “Love rejoices in the truth.” In the moments Keeli speaks the truth of God’s love to people, I begin to see how selfless love is.  Knowing the truth and holding it from others is an instrument of control and manipulation.  Unfortunately, we see this in the church at an uncomfortable level.  Imagine being invited to speak at a church and being told, right before you begin, not to mention the Holy Spirit because some might see Him as controversial or divisive (even though He is the key to unity).

How selfish it is for someone to have experienced the healing power of God and not offer it to those in pain?  How selfish is it to know the benefits of being baptized in the Holy Spirit and not teach it?  How selfish is it to build a ministry based on a preacher’s closeness with God rather than helping bring others to the realization that Jesus has already closed in on us?  How selfish is it to know Jesus' limitless love and not shout it from the rooftops?  Each time Keeli teaches people how to hear the voice of God, leads them to Jesus or in the baptism of the Spirit, or releases the healing power of God into their bodies, I see how unselfish she is.  When I hear others say, “Why haven’t I heard about this before?” I realize just how fearless my wife is because of the boldness she has received from the Holy Spirit.

Since the moment I fell in love with Keeli, I felt it was my duty to make sure she was able to fulfill her call to preach the Gospel each time the door opened.  We were married and opportunities followed.  She was invited on multiple occasions to address crowds with the Gospel.  To my shock and awe, she declined.  I asked her why she didn’t go and this was her response:

“I married you so we could go together.”

The opportunities didn’t end there.  We still get invited to speak but we never fly solo.  We believe there is something that has been missing from the message being preached.  Crowds of hundreds or thousands of people cannot compare to the best ministry life has to offer: family.  In the words of Keeli, “We always go together.” As my wife forfeited opportunities to travel abroad to do what she loves to do, she remained with her family, waiting for the opportunities to do the very thing we love to do more than anything – together as a family.

-Jonathan Fawcett

Bathroom Breakthrough: Puppets Can't Subdue Tyranny... You Can

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKyU17b4DbQ&w=640&h=360] There is a term that is used loosely and innocently by many in the church.  The intentions of this phrase is good but it slightly misrepresents the truth of who God is, who we are, and the state of the world.  In fact, most believers, at some point in their life are guilty of saying it at some point or another.  It is a phrase used to bring comfort and assists in the justification of why bad things happen.  However, one must understand that God's will is not everything that happens and everything that happens is not God's will.  The phrase I am referring to is: God is in control.

When God made Adam and Eve, He did not create puppets.  God is not a puppet on a string.  Therefore, He could not truly create anyone in His image if they were under control.  Instead, He gave dominion to mankind (Genesis 1:26-28).  Psalms 115:16 states that the heavens belong to the Lord but the earth He has given to man.  But we do not have control over the earth.  We simply have what Jesus gave: authority.

There is a major difference between authority and control.  If God is in control, why is there racism?  Why is there war or terror?  Why is there murder and rape?  Why is there human trafficking?  Why are there natural disasters wiping out entire cities?  Why is anybody sick?  God is either in control and mad, or we are co-heirs and seated in heavenly realms with Him operating in His authority, and He is madly in love with the entire world.

I Timothy 2:4 and II Peter 3:9 tell us that it is God's will that all be saved and come to the knowledge of salvation.  The entire world was chosen, elected, and predestined to be in Christ.  However, we know that many reject His love and the knowledge of His salvation.  It still does not remove their inclusion in the finished work of the cross or mean that they were chosen by God not to be saved.  It just means they simply choose to reject.

When we walk in the authority of Christ, sickness becomes extinct, solutions come easy, divine inspiration and creativity change nations for good, poverty becomes a thing of the past, the hungry are fed, the lonely are loved, and the orphans and widows are taken good care of.  Heaven on earth is a utopia.  We can know God's will when we look at Jesus.  We can see what isn't God's will when we look at the absence of His authority.  But now, there is no absence of authority for the believer whose goal is God's kingdom on earth.

Jonathan Fawcett

Bathroom Breakthrough: I Like Big Buts

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vY3ZGckmtt8]That's right!  Big buts!  When millions stop short with I Corinthians 2:9, Paul was bold enough in verse 10 to say, "But God".  That is a very big but and utterly destroys every excuse for not understanding the mysteries of God.  Jesus has revealed the mysteries of the universe by His Holy Spirit.  The beauty in hearing God's voice is that it requires us to be teachable.  It took time for me to arrive to the realization that Christ already accomplished what I was trying to in my own efforts.  To quote two statuses from this past week's Facebook activity:

"Who is guilty of using the phrase "standing in the gap"? I'm raising my hand. NEWSFLASH: There is no gap! Jesus is closer to you than you are to you. Gap: closed. Old Covenant vernacular: over. When we remain teachable, the Good News continues to get better and better because we can look back on the silly things we once believed and be glad that Jesus didn't keep a secret. Only people can take the upfront truth of God's grace and twist it to require more of our effort. With that said, if we continue to believe in our striving, the only gap remaining is the one between our ears and the one where our teeth get knocked out by the self-inflicted beating that accompanies religion."

And...

"Repent of your constant repentance! Even though the platform of some ministries is to get people to repent, the question is- of what?! The word "repent" means to change your mind. When you received the mind of Christ, your days of crying out in repentance were over!"

In other words, because of your union with Christ, you now have the mind of Christ.  His thoughts have become your thoughts and His ways have become your ways.  The mind of Christ does not need to be changed.  We are continually being made in the image of God.  We already are!  Your moments of denial are just the nature of the old, dead, zombie - the person you once were who was co-crucified, co-buried, and c0-raised.  You deserved hell and death.  But God... He made you a new creature - one that can never be separated from Him.  That old, sick, crippled zombie stayed buried.  The new you was raised in perfect union with Christ.

Don't let repentance and ritualistic religion (no matter how charismatic it might seem) keep you from experiencing the freedom of the rest that accompanies His grace.

Jonathan Fawcett