Today we begin our season of prayer and fasting for the next 40 days. I am asking the Lord some very personal questions during this time and fully expect to hear. I also fully expect to hear some things that may be uncomfortable. I asked the church Wednesday night, “what if God asks you to do something 180 degrees in the opposite direction of what you are doing?” How often do we do something just because we’ve been taught to do it a certain way i.e., tradition. What if He shakes us out of our religious tradition and brings us back to His heart in some matters? What would a church stripped of man’s “unBiblical” tradition look like? There is nothing wrong with traditions as long as they do not drown out the Word and the Voice of God in our midst. The problem is that we have been in our traditions for so long that we can no longer separate them from what we think is truly Biblical and we have become pragmatists in believing that the end justifies the means. So, could it be possible that God is really not in much of what we call “spirtual activity”.
Part of my focus during the next 40 days is seeking God for what He wants Impact Church to look like. Too often we model our churches after the last conference we attended, or the church down the street that seems to be growing or just the way it has always been done. In many cases, I fear that our markers for church success have been cut from a pattern that is not Biblical. How much of our tradition is really from God? How much pleases God? How much could we remove from our weekly activities and not affect the Kingdom of God or how much could we eliminate and actually benefit the Kingdom of God?
We only have 24 hours in a day, so why not be about our Father’s business rather than our own. Jesus said in John 5:19,30 “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise…30 I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.”
Jesus made the religious very nervous because He did not acknowledge the traditions of man over the truth of His Father. There’s a part of me that just does not like status quo religion and it’s time to arise and ask ourselves “what does God want at this time in my life?” What is Impact supposed to look like? What is my life supposed to look like? How much of what I do is my idea, plan or strategy and not God’s?
So off we go on our 40 days of seeking God for His heart concerning our nation, our church and our personal lives.
Are you ready?
