See, I’ve found an odd effect in accountability. There have been times where I have admitted issues to friends so that they can help me get on the right path, and within time, those people all of the sudden have the same struggle. It’s as though in a weak moment of their life, they thought about me and considered me someone who was trying to be a good Christian but had issues. And then in that moment they fell into those struggles.

Now accountability is incredibly important. We should all look for people to hold us to God’s standard of living. But if we’re going to take on accountability, we need to do so with strong hearts. Here’s the verse I am referring to in Galatians 6:1.

Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.

It’s that last part that I really feel fits what I’m trying to say. When you go to hold someone accountable, you actually need to watch yourself. If you go in thinking that your invulnerable to anyone’s issues, you may leave your guard down to a prowling, roaring lion who seeks to devour you. In a weak moment you may find your defenses crashing down because you know of that Christian who wants to live right, but is stuck in transgression. That being said, those of you in the realm of counseling should especially keep your guard up.

Also note that you should restore that person in a spirit of gentleness. I wrote on that theme in an older post. And it’s a good note for me right now because I’ve been reflecting the severe words of Paul on transgression in passages such as 1 Corinthians 5. The two help you see balance in Paul’s dealings with Christians.

We must seek to live righteous knowing at the same time that Jesus is our righteousness. Restore one another in gentleness. Find an accountability partner. And to make my “odd” point clear once more: guard yourself as you hold someone accountable, lest you be tempted too. If you fall into the same problems as the person you’re trying to help, you’ll both need help and your accountability for each other will be weak.

That’s something I’ve also experienced. Accountability partners who struggle with the same struggle don’t do the greatest job at helping each other get out of the struggle because neither experience much of the freedom they both desire. Neither of the two stand as a model to say, “Dude, this is great, you gotta come up here!” Instead you throw pity parties for each other.

“This was an issue again yesterday.”

“Yeah, same here.”

“Yeah. Let’s not do that again.”

“Okay.”

Two days pass and the conversation happens again.

I’m not saying that these accountability groups are bad. But you may experience much more success if you bring a few other trustworthy people into your group who can show you what freedom looks like. That way they can restore you in gentleness and you’ll actually want to be like them.

And that’s my spiel on odd effects.

These pictures were actually scanned with my iPhone using the app TurboScan.

More Haven fun:

And now take your pick between the Signs and Wonders high quality PDF or the smaller reduced quality PDF. Their relatively short as they just look at a few of the signs and wonders Jesus did in His life. We spent most of our meeting yesterday addressing some of the craziest signs and wonders that have happened throughout history. Learn about it yourself by reading the following book:

As I was reading through it today, Prince listed 5 qualities that were typically found in false religions. That one that really caught me by surprise was number 4: “Religions teaching that people can attain righteousness by their own efforts.”

Again, the appeal is to human pride. Proud people are drawn to religious systems that demand hard, unreasonable forms of work and even self-inflicted suffering. The more rigorous the demands of a religion, the greater the degree of pride a person feels in fulfilling them.

Now perhaps this shouldn’t have caught me off guard. After all I’ve preached it before and I understand that our perfection is found in Jesus. But on the other side of things, we Christians do have to push ourselves to stay disciplined in the faith and stay away from sin. We have to seek to be perfect as God is perfect (Matthew 5:48).

The problem is that many of us Christians focus so much on disciplining ourselves that we never even bring Jesus into the picture. Yes, we are called to live righteously, but Jesus is our righteousness. We cannot become righteous without Him and His all-powerful blood.

There’s a balance. A balance between the all-sufficient atonement of Christ and the discipline of your flesh. If you focus only on yourself and your flesh, “you appeal to human pride,” as Prince said. If you only call yourself saved under the grace of Jesus, but never look to live a righteous life, you take advantage of grace. For this reason, you could cast out demons and do miracles in the power of the name of Jesus and God could still tell you “I never knew you” (Matthew 7:21-23). You could be a Christian and do Christian things and at the same time be a worker of lawlessness.

I think a lot of times I tend to find myself on the side of “I’m not good enough” rather than on the side of “Jesus is good enough for me.” And I think this morning God was trying to restore that balance in my head. I had read what Prince had to say while I was at home and then, when I got to my office, I decided to take communion. Now I tend to open myself up to communion differently when I take it in private, (i.e. in worship, reflection, meditation, or quiet), but this time I went with the good ol’ fashioned Free Methodist handbook. And as I read through it, this stuck out to me:

We do not come to this Your table, O merciful Lord, with self-confidence and pride, trusting in our own righteousness, but we trust in Your great and many mercies. We are not worthy to gather the crumbs from under Your table. But You, O Lord, are unchanging in Your mercy and Your nature is love; grant us, therefore, God of mercy, God of grace, so to eat at this Your table that we may receive in spirit and in truth the body of Your dear Son, Jesus Christ, and the merits of His shed blood, so that we may live and grow in His likeness and, being washed and cleansed through His most precious blood, we may evermore live in Him and He in us. Amen. (Emphasis mine)

Enter the balance. If you’re like me and tend to focus more on your good works, start to focus on Jesus’ righteousness. You can’t achieve it without Him as seen in Romans 3:21-26.

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

But if you’re used to taking advantage of Jesus’ righteousness, grace, and mercy and living an immoral life of sin, start to discipline yourself and do what you’re called to do as pointed out in James 2:14-17.

What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

Righteousness comes to us by faith in Jesus Christ. But we are hardly righteous if we don’t live like it. For a long time I’ve tried to reconcile the following two passages together:

Romans 4:1-5

What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness…

James 2:21-26

Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.

Despite what it may look like at first glance, I no longer think these verses are at odds with each other. I mean you read a bunch of the other letters Paul wrote and it becomes completely obvious that he knows you have to live righteously to get into Heaven (1 Corinthians 6:9-11):

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Paul and James aren’t at war with each other. They’re emphasizing different sides of the spectrum. Paul shows the victory of the righteousness we gain from Jesus. James acknowledges that victory while stating the obvious that we still have to live righteously and our works should show it.

And with that, I’m going to close. I think the Holy Spirit has taken me much further into this discussion than I thought He would! I meant to wrap up like three paragraphs after my picture!

How are you imbalanced in this discussion? Make steps to fix it. Ask Righteousness to help.

I’m no stranger to instrumental worship. I do after all listen to a ton of electronic music. But even that kind of instrumental music tends to have at least has some kind overlaying words.

I’ve been asked quite a few times in my life to make an acoustic piano album. It wasn’t until yesterday that I gave it a real shot. So here’s a song I recorded called Desperate Love. If people accept it well, perhaps I’ll finish the album which will probably be called The Intimacy of God.

A lot of my songs usually have words because I love to write worship lyrics to God. But as I’ve come to know more about worship soaking, I now see use for an instrumental worship album. And on top of that, Jon Thurlow just put out an album entitled The Anointed One to further illustrate that.

Anyways, here’s my song:

You’ll hear tongues sang throughout this song. Take some time to reflect and meditate on God as the song goes on. Perhaps take some communion as we did while at Apollos we listened.

When you’re done, you can then move onto the study. I have no MP3 for you this week, but the PDF has tons of information on it. Download the high quality PDF here or the reduced quality PDF here.

Tongues has always been confusing to the majority of Christians. See if our study clears it up for you at all and ask God to move in this spiritual gift to learn more yourself from the greatest teacher you could have.

Huge credit to Dr. Ken Brewer on this session of Apollos. He’s been a great mentor to me and a lot of this particular study came right out of my notebook from his class on the Gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Also, new class starts next month. Get there in person if you really want to advance your learning:

I really enjoyed giving this message. I hope you enjoy it too. To learn more, check out James W. Goll’s book Deliverance from Darkness as much of what I’ve learned on this has come from his amazing book. You can grab it on Amazon, Kindle, and iBooks.

Introduction

We’re getting close to Christmas and so today I want us to look into the reason Jesus came. Why was a savior born in a manger? To die on a cross, yes, but was there any other reason for Him to be on earth or was that it?

Jesus’ vision for His ministry while on earth is mentioned in Luke 4: 16-21:

And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

Jesus essentially came to earth to bless the world.

Blessings

When we think of blessings today, our minds tempt to jump to the following ideas:

• An expression (Often used when someone finds out you’re a Christian, ie. God bless you)
• Finances (The first thing that often comes to mind when we say blessing is money)
• Prayer for food
• Sneezing

Author James W. Goll offers a great definition of blessings in his book Deliverance from Darkness:

“A blessing is a word spoken for good that carries spiritual power and authority and that sets in motion something that will probably go on from generation generation.”

Goll’s book mentioned an idea that Jesus may have had so much of this spiritual power and authority that if he said, “Come forth” instead of “Lazarus come forth,” people would have come out of the tombs all over the place. Imagine Jesus, “Oh sorry everyone! I just meant Lazarus!” All the people grumble and fall back into the grave.

Jesus blessed so much that you can literally see a trail of blessing behind him. Countries and cities would have been completely changed as everyone had seen and experienced the blessings and power of Jesus.

Can you imagine the stories Jesus left behind?

• The Blind Man (John 9): You’ve seen me sitting on the corner for years. It’s true: I couldn’t see! But when that man came through town, he healed my eyes. I can’t explain it! All I know is that he opened my eyes! I mean yeah, he spit in some dirt and then wiped it on my eyes for some reason, but it worked! I kid you not, I have been born since birth. This is the first time I have ever seen anything and the beauty of this world is a blessing in and of itself!
• Lazarus Raised from the Dead (John 11): Words can’t describe what I’ve experienced. I literally watched life fade before my eyes. I felt the pangs of death. Heck—I did die! I was out for days and the next thing I know I’m alive and awake, and in a tomb. You all were at the funeral! You know that I once was dead, but now I live. Many of you Jews now believe in Jesus because you have seen the true power of God that He possesses. In fact, my testimony have turned so many of you towards Jesus that the rumor is that the pharisees are out to kill me.
• The Man at the Portico (John 5): Surely you all have seen me at the portico. And because of that you know that I haven’t been able to move and now I can! This isn’t some kind of elaborate hoax people! I’m not dedicated enough to pretend to be lame for 38 years. But that Jesus guy, he came up to me and told me to get up! He spoke blessing over me. He told me to do something that I couldn’t do! At first I thought it was some kind of horrible joke, but then I somehow stood and walked. This is the blessing of God on my life!
• The Leper (Mark 1): Everyone listen! Do you remember me? That’s right, I used to have leprosy. Many of you haven’t paid any attention to me as I’ve been a death threat to all of you. You knew that if you got too close to me you could get my sickness. You’ve considered me unclean and unapproachable. My life has been so lonely and so hard but now things have changed. Look at me! Do you see any more sores? Doesn’t my skin look perfect? This is that man Jesus’ doing. I knew He was a healer and so I approached Him with hope. And then for the first time since I’ve had this sickness, I was physically touched. That man actually touched me despite the fact that I had this contagious, destructive disease. Take a look! I am that same guy! Jesus is real!
• The Demon-Possessed Man (Luke 8): I’ve heard you all talking about me and yes, I am that guy. I now appear normal and sane because I am! Remember how you used to have to chain me down? Remember how I used to walk naked through the tombs and be driven out into the desert? Remember how you all kept your distance from me because I was a crazy man full of demons and supernatural strength? Well things are different now! That man Jesus who was here cast out the demons! It’s the reason for that massive pig suicide. There was nothing any of you have ever been able to do to fix me, but this Jesus man walks in power and authority and sent those demons right out of me. He wouldn’t let me come with Him but He told me to stay here and tell you all about Him. And so that’s exactly what I will dedicate my life to doing!

Jesus’s blessings disrupted life around him. Not only did it disrupt the lives people in the stories we just heard, but it also disrupted the religious life of the time. Pharisees plotted to kill Jesus. They even planned to kill Lazarus for just being a testimony of Jesus’ power.

You start to see in Jesus’ ministry that there literal power in blessing. In the cases I just shared this power was visible. However, there is also literal power in invisible spoken blessings. For example, in Genesis 27:26-29, Jacob steals his brother Esau’s blessing from their father Isaac.

Then his father Isaac said to him, “Come near and kiss me, my son.” So he came near and kissed him. And Isaac smelled the smell of his garments and blessed him and said,

“See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field that the Lord has blessed! May God give you of the dew of heaven and of the fatness of the earth and plenty of grain and wine. Let peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you. Be lord over your brothers, and may your mother’s sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you, and blessed be everyone who blesses you!”

When the family finds out what happened, the blessing cannot be reversed even though it was stolen. I can’t be taken back and given to Esau.

You even see this idea of blessing people to be something that God does and not just something that humans made up. He speaks blessing over Abraham and the blessing comes true. Jacob also wrestles with God in Genesis 32:24–30 and receives a blessing:

And Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket, and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. Then he said, “Let me go, for the day has broken.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” And he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” Then he said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.” Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him. So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered.”

You have a power in you to speak blessings over others. It’s not just symbolic. It’s not just a word. It’s not just an expression. It’s an authority that you have.

Curses

You may have a hard time believing in a literal power in blessing, but many Christians have no problem believing in witchcraft, the occult, and curses. So if you have a hard time understanding blessing, let’s talk about its opposite.

Curses are powerful destructive words spoken over someone—the opposite of blessing. Blessings are positive and encouraging, curses are negative and destructive.

That’s why we call curse words, “curse words.” You may have never thought about it, but when you curse you proclaim negative, destructive statements over others. For example, “Damn you,” or “Go to Hell,” are pronunciations of evil over someone’s life. Even the f-word is typically used as a proclamation of evil in someone’s life (whether you mean it that way or not).

Actual curses created out of witchcraft can carry demonic authority. But even expressions that don’t come from witchcraft can be strong enough to give the enemy a place to break into someone’s life.

• You’re ugly
• You’re fat
• You’ll never do anything right
• You’ll always be a failure
• You’ll never get out of this mess
• You’re not good enough
• I hate you
• Nobody likes you

These are all strong, negative, destructive curses that people speak without even thinking. And it’s obvious that demons gravitate to these phrases and try to empower them by the results of such words.

• You’re ugly—awful image perception, addiction to magazines and looking at beautiful people
• You’re fat—bulimia
• You’ll never do anything right—creates consistent and constant failure
• You’ll always be a failure—awful grades, marriages, and occupations
• You’ll never get out of this mess—increased levels of addiction and hopelessness
• You’re not good enough—creates an impossibility to do better
• I hate you—cutting
• Nobody likes you—suicide

These curses that people speak without even thinking cause some of the worst and greatest demonic strongholds and outcomes of all time.

You can speak these curses over your own life. A few years back I was especially tormented by demonic thoughts. I thought they were my own and the more I paid attention to them, the worse they got. I thought of myself as a horrible person more and more so with every thought until one day I heard a word spoken in a podcast. The preacher explained that one of demons great strategies is to put thoughts in your mind and then accuse you of thinking of them. I had fallen prey to this plan and was deeply affected by it. Now I had to learn to discern between my thoughts and demonic thoughts to truly learn who I was.

As 1 Corinthians 10:3-6 says, we need to learn to hear God’s thoughts and hold every thought captive.

For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.

Your thoughts engage in warfare. Demons speak through them and try to destroy you. But God speaks to you and often sounds like your thoughts as well. And when you listen to God’s voice, instead of demons, you get an incredibly different response as to who you are. God speaks love, grace, mercy, and conviction (not condemnation) into your life:

• I’m ugly and fat—No you’re not. I knit you in the womb, you’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen!
• I’ll never do anything right, I’ll always be a failure, I’ll never be good enough—You’re not a failure to me and you’re made perfect in me.
• I’ll never get out of this mess—You have no idea just how strong my power truly is.
• Everyone hates me, nobody likes me—The love I have for you it a million times brighter than any hatred anyone could ever have for you. Live in my grace and mercy.

I heard Kris Vallotton tell a story once of how he called a guy he didn’t know a holy man during a church service. No one would have believed it because this guy was a total drug addict and his life was falling apart. That reverse proclamation that he made over his life pulled the holy man inside of him out and that night was the beginning of an entirely new life for him.

You should also be aware that we can bring curses into our lives by pursuing worldly things that are not of God. In Deuteronomy 27:15-26 Moses gave a long list of things we weren’t supposed to do:

“ ‘Cursed be the man who makes a carved or cast metal image, an abomination to the Lord, a thing made by the hands of a craftsman, and sets it up in secret.’ And all the people shall answer and say, ‘Amen.’

“ ‘Cursed be anyone who dishonors his father or his mother.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

“ ‘Cursed be anyone who moves his neighbor’s landmark.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

“ ‘Cursed be anyone who misleads a blind man on the road.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

“ ‘Cursed be anyone who perverts the justice due to the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

“ ‘Cursed be anyone who lies with his father’s wife, because he has uncovered his father’s nakedness.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

“ ‘Cursed be anyone who lies with any kind of animal.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

“ ‘Cursed be anyone who lies with his sister, whether the daughter of his father or the daughter of his mother.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

“ ‘Cursed be anyone who lies with his mother-in-law.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

“ ‘Cursed be anyone who strikes down his neighbor in secret.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

“ ‘Cursed be anyone who takes a bribe to shed innocent blood.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

“ ‘Cursed be anyone who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

Moses is basically saying that you invoke curses on your life when you commit such sins. It make sense, because these such sins tend to just lead to greater sins as our flesh sides with demons to develop the sins further:

• Coveting can become stealing
• Lust can become rape
• Anger can become murder

Sin left unchecked only escalates. Sin left unchecked keeps us in a curse. But when we obey the first commandment and keep God first above all else, we are ready for the war against the authorities and cosmic powers of this world (Ephesians 6:10-20):

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak.

The Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible points out that this passage does not describe any kind of shield on our back. We are always at war and must always be on our guard:

There is no armor specified for the back, but only for the front of the body; implying that we must never turn our back to the foe (Lu 9:62); our only safety is in resisting ceaselessly (Mt 4:11; Jam 4:7).

I think one of the reasons we fall into sin so much today is because the church has become so evangelical that it has forgotten how to create disciples. We focus so much on trying to get to get non-believers to accept Christ that we sometimes forget to grow the Christians we do have, as proved by Willow Creek’s book, Reveal.

Another reason we live in sin is because we are fine with being baby Christians and some people spend their entire life there. I heard lyrics the other day that I thought really called out such weakness and made it blatantly obvious how little sense it makes to live continually in that baby phase of Christianity:

For Once In My Life by B. Reith

Why we tryin to live like (live like)
There’s no consequences (quences)
You tell us how to live right (live right)
We get all defensive (fensive)
That’s not the way that life works (life works)
Sorry to bust your bubble (bubble)
Everyday that we don’t change
Just leads to more and more trouble yeah

I’m not looking for a cop-out
Looking for excuses
I’ve made those all my whole life
I’m ready for a change
Yeah I’m really ready for a change

I don’t know about you
I made up my mind
I ain’t playin’ games
We’re running out of time
I made such a mess already
This ain’t the best I can be

So you can keep playin’
I ain’t got the patience
Of being little kids no more, no more
I’m a go and do the right things yeah, yeah
I’m a go and do the right things yeah, yeah

When my life is over
I don’t wanna look back and say
That I held it all back
And I got nothing to show for it
I’ll let it all go so it
Doesn’t all go to waste
For once in my life
I’ve decided I’m ready for a change

That’s the mindset we need to live in. We need to not be defensive when other Christians try to help us. We need to strive for stronger Christianity rather than live in a weak, stale, and cursed version of Christianity that doesn’t change anything in this world. in fact, that’s not even Christianity. That’s a counterfeit version that Satan has tricked many into accepting as the real deal.

A Few Pointers

Don’t be a Ned Flanders. When I tell you to speak blessings on people I don’t mean that you only speak Christianese and are completely unaware of the world around you while you live in the clouds.

Have you met these people? They’re typically the ones who every day post something on Facebook with caps lock on and an excessive amount of exclamation marks. I always found them difficult to take serious. Sometimes they write tons of blessings over themselves for all the world to see. You don’t have to be weird to bless people.

Jesus had gentle moments and blessed people everywhere he went, but He also did plenty of scolding. He was quite normal emotionally. He laughed, cried, grew tired, among many other attributes.

Also, it’s incredibly important to pursue a blessing. I’ve been in churches that proclaim dozens of blessings over their church and their city every single service that they have. However, these same people never seem to do anything to propel those blessings into existence.

If you are trying to break a curse on someone and put a blessing into their life, you need to make sure they know that what you’re saying is the truth. You need to be convincing, otherwise they won’t latch on to the blessing and empower it. You need to show them God in that moment.

In the same way, if you proclaim revival over a city and don’t pursue it, it won’t happen. You’ll ready the angels for warfare and then make them stand in formation and wait (for years even).

In Conclusion:

In closing, I want to share one more verse with you about how we need to live in order to destroy curses and grow blessings (Ephesians 4:25-31):

Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil. Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

If we want to please Christ this Christmas, let’s continue to do the blessings He came here to do. Let’s fulfill the vision for His ministry. The first man, Adam, brought curses into this world. But the second man, Jesus restored it through the blessing of the Cross. Surely we can do the same if we take up our cross daily. But it will require us to watch ourselves and forgive one another. That’s where curses die and blessings explode.

In closing, I push you to find someone to confide in about the curses you think might be on your life. Perhaps it was one of the ones I mentioned or perhaps it’s one that you knew as soon as I brought up the idea. Confide that in someone and ask them to break it and put blessing in it’s place. Ask Christ to come to your defense. This is important.

—The picture above is of my friend Taylor. It looks as though it fits this post, but just so we’re clear he is not an example of someone who judges churches and pastors ;)—

Why are we so desperate to pick a fight? I’m serious—I know I’m not the only one! Are we not supposed to recognize the majority of these speakers as God’s chosen leaders? Are they not his anointed?

If you don’t think you’re guilty of such a thing, look through your life real quick. Can you think of one or two (or dozens) of church stories from your past that you still tell people today? I can. What is our obsession with holding onto our past negative church experiences? No wonder America’s churches are falling apart. We haven’t learned to forgive.

Now look: I’m not saying that we shouldn’t have opinions or that we shouldn’t test the things we hear in church. I’m not even saying we shouldn’t question. That would be blindness. I guess what I mean is that we need to stop going into churches with the sole purpose of disapproving of God’s anointed. We shouldn’t join a church with the desire to disprove or challenge the pastor and leaders (that may sound ridiculous, but it happens way more often than you’d think). That’s like getting into a relationship with someone because you want to change them.

If only we tried to have more of a heart like David’s. If you’ve ever read through 1 and 2 Samuel then you’ve seen how strangely David treated King Saul. Saul was not a great king and he tried to kill David time and time again. But despite these many death threats, David refused to attack “God’s anointed.” Despite the fact that the king had clearly gone crazy, David refused to touch someone that God had put such a blessing on. And on top of that, David had the chance to do so, but he refused.

Now of course you don’t want to get mixed up in a church that has a pastor like Saul, but the point remains: some respect for our church leaders would be nice. If you have something to say, you can of course say it, but I suggest you truly check your motives first. Do you truly have a concern about something or are you just looking to be negative? Because American society pushes negativity and criticism harder than any other that I know of. You only have to look through the reviews of the many amazing albums on iTunes to see that.

I feel so awful for all of those mega-church pastors who get hundreds of hate-filled letters and emails every week. Heck, I feel bad for any pastor that gets hate mail. What better way to destroy a ministry than to rip apart its leader. Even something as small as giving your disapproval of a minor statement said in last week’s message is enough to tear down a leader.

Since I’m a pastor you may think that I’m writing this post about me or my church. I am not. I was actually just reading a book and something written in it along with something a college professor of mine said compelled me to put this together. Just so we’re clear, I’m not writing this to demand your respect.

See, we broke into groups and prayed for healing during church and saw some great things. One group prayed for a lady who is currently in the hospital and wasn’t expected to make it much longer. By the end of the service someone got a text that she was doing much better.

We also prayed for someone else who has had an ongoing battle with an unknown sickness and the Spirit brought her to the ground. She has felt amazing since then.

I don’t know what will happen tonight, but I come expecting great things. Join us at 8:00 @1208GREENWOOD, Jackson, MI, 49203 and bring anyone you know that’s sick. Also, know that we’ll pray for you for anything—even if it’s not specifically related to healing.