Monthly Archives: July 2010

Click on following links for earlier articles: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Part 11, Part 12 and Part 13.

“Men need to get in touch with their feminine side,” is an often used statement by modern feminists. But interestingly enough, there is some truth attached to it, albeit a spiritual truth.

In the beginning, God removed a rib from the first Adam to create the first woman, Eve.  So, in effect, out of a man’s side flowed some blood and then man was placed inside a woman, okay?

Later, Eve was deceived by the serpent (Satan) and then God spoke the following to her:

To the woman He said, “I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth, in pain you shall bring forth children; yet your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.” (Genesis 3: 16)

Though it was Adam’s sin of disobedience which caused the fall of mankind, Eve’s deception caused all women to be relegated to the rank of a gender underling versus man in the natural environment and under the Old Covenant’s mandates.

But along comes the last Adam, Jesus, and then what happened?

But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out. (John 19: 34)

Much like the first Adam, blood flowed out of the last Adam’s side. Yet this time, not just a part of a man (the rib) was used to create another person, but all of the last Adam is placed within His new creations.

To whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. (Colossians 1: 27)

Then the Apostle Paul comes along and dropped his bombshell in the year 61  AD.

For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is great; but I am speaking in reference to Christ and the church. (Ephesians 3: 31 – 32)

The church becomes the bride of Christ, a women, which is also the body of Christ, submitted under Jesus’ headship. And like Eve, the bride of Christ’s desire is directed toward her husband, especially when she cries:

The Spirit and the bride say, “Come…” (Revelation 22: 17)

But the apostle Paul also dropped another bombshell in his letter to the Ephesians.

To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given , to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things; so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church [the bride of Christ] to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 3: 8 – 10)

Jesus redeemed Eve’s deception and for that matter, all women, forever and ever with this revelation. And as Jesus said on the cross, “It is finished!”

So, what can women actually do in the church?

(Continued in Part 15)

A Rerun Updated Series

Click on following links for earlier articles: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4.

Being a car salesman at ten different auto dealerships allows me to have some interesting insights, such as:  most Christians don’t wear their white robes when buying cars. Somehow, they disrobe at the entrance of the dealership and act just like pagans when entering the door; most Christians lie… a lot!

And if that’s not bad enough, wait until you hear the next insight.

Car salesmen – including me – absolutely hate trying to sell a pastor or preacher a car. In fact, if a known pastor or preacher parks his car in front of a dealership, veteran salesmen will run for the restrooms, parts departments, service areas, anywhere to avoid greeting the preacher. Only a newbie will be left standing at the door, awaiting the preacher.

It’s obvious why Christians lie at dealerships, right? They hope to get a better deal and save their precious mammon.

But why do car salesmen hate selling preachers?

Over and over again, I have watched various Christian clergy act like arrogant hypocrites when they’re purchasing vehicles. They expect favors. They whine and complain. They treat auto personnel as underlings. On and on, the list continues. Yuck! Yuck! Yuck!

Now, don’t get me wrong, auto dealerships are high pressure cauldrons where it’s tough to hold onto Christian integrity on the part of the sales person or of the buyer. It’s a tough atmosphere for Christians to survive in.

And yet, let’s be honest, what’s the real reason that pastors and preachers (clergy) have a bad reputation with car salesmen? The separation between clergy and lay people. Period.

But of course, there will be readers who will state, “My pastor is not like that at all!”

No doubt there are countless godly pastors and preachers in America who walk the walk, and talk the talk, even at auto dealerships, but even with almost every one of these godly people, there is an aura of separation about them.

Beware of the scribes, who desire to go around in long robes, love greetings in the marketplaces, the best seats in the synagogues, and the best places at feasts, who devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. These will receive greater condemnation. (Mark 12:40)

Is the separation between clergy and lay people scriptural?

(Continued in Part 6.)

Click on following links for earlier articles: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10 and Part 11.

We obviously have a big advantage over the followers of Jesus at the time of  His earthly ministry, in that we have the complete Bible as our reference. His followers only had the Law and the Prophets; and thus they looked through a shadow, trying to figure out what Jesus was doing in His ministry.

But even so, we also need the Holy Spirit to guide us so that we do not continue walking in yesterday’s manna.

Now, looking at the female thread the Father wove in and out during Jesus’ earthly ministry, we should not be surprised at the ending which the Father orchestrated for Jesus. And yet, most of us see it as only a coincidence, just the luck of the draw.

Then they [the disciples] went home. Mary was standing outside the tomb crying, and as she wept, she stooped and looked in. She saw two white-robed angels sitting at the head and the foot of the place where the body of Jesus had been lying.

“Why are you crying?” the angels asked her.

“Because they have taken away my Lord,” she replied, “and I don’t know where they have put Him.

She glanced over her shoulder and saw someone standing behind her. It was Jesus, but she didn’t recognize Him.

“Why are you crying,” Jesus asked her. “Who are you looking for?”

She thought He was the gardener. “Sir,” she said, “if you have taken Him away, tell me where you have put Him, and I will go and get Him.”

“Mary,” Jesus said.

She turned toward Him and exclaimed, “Teacher!”

“Don’t cling to me,” Jesus said, “for I haven’t yet ascended to the Father. But go find My brothers and tell them that I am ascending to My Father and your Father, My God and your God.”

Mary Magdalene found the disciples and told them, “”I have seen the Lord.” Then she gave them His message. (John 20: 10 – 18 NLT)

Mary Magdalene was the only person mentioned who followed Jesus from Galilee, witnessed the crucifixion and discovered the empty tomb. Then, she became the first person to see and talk to the risen Lord.

And all this was orchestrated by the Father to represent something the Father had on His heart since the beginning of time. Now what was that mystery?

(Continued in Part 13)

A Rerun Updated Series

Click on following links for earlier articles: Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.

David Yonggi Cho, pastor of the world’s largest church with 830,000 members, was once asked a question during an interview by a magazine. “Will America ever have a church as large as Yoido Full Gospel Church?”

“No,” he replied, “Americans are not willing to spend the time in prayer that such a large undertaking would require.”

Though this interview took place twenty years ago, Cho’s answer still bugs me today. Not that his words were wrong, but rather, they irritate me because they accurately describe us American Christians.

You see, Pastor Cho’s church has prayer meetings where 300,000 people get together and pray for hours. (The number would even be higher if the various satellite sites had room for more people.)

The median church size in America is 75 members. Now, let’s say a pastor of one of these median-sized churches decides to start prayer meetings, how many people can he expect to show up each week? Three or four; maybe five. And even this small number will most likely tail dwindle away over a period of time.

And of course, there are exceptions. But for every praying church, there are scores of churches who have no prayer meetings at all.

In the 1990′s, I joined a prayer team at a church. After the services, the prayer team members gathered at the front of the church to pray for attendees who needed prayer.

Though  new to the church, it was not long before most knew I had a prophetic voice. And each week, the line in front of me grew longer and longer until finally, most of the other prayer team members stood around, watching me pray for people.

The pastor did his best to encourage people to receive prayer from the other team members, but most people shook their heads and said, “No, we’ll wait for Larry.”

One Sunday, I looked at the long line of people awaiting prayer from me, and a revelation smacked me along the side of my head: “We are doing church wrong!”

So, maybe you’d say, “Wait a moment. Prophecy is for the common good of the Body, right? Shouldn’t you give words to everyone who needs them?”

Yes, I’m called to give prophetic words to people.  But at the same time, I’m called to help equip believers to do the work of service … not do the work for them.

Sadly, our traditional church system has trained people to sit and expect the so-called professionals to do the ministering for them. You know, the clergy versus the lay people system.

And let me tell you, this does not please Jesus because on account of this reasoning, we have a weak, dependent Church. One that is a sitting duck, waiting to be blown out of its pews by possible calamities hitting our nation in the near future.

(Continued in Part 5)

An Updated Rerun Series

Click on following link for earlier article: Part 1.

If you have read my two series, It’s Your Decision…Run or Fight! and Sifting Through The Ashes of A Spiritual Defeat, then you know that 1994 was not one of those years Frank Sinatra sang about in his hit song. It was not a very good year. In fact,  it was an absolutely, miserable one for me.

And 1995 was not much better.

By early summer, I was just looking for a back pew in a church where I could hang out, keep quiet, and hopefully, put myself back together again. My life and calling were disaster zones.

A church, thirty miles away, seemed to be the answer to my prayers. The pastor was a man with a shepherd’s heart. Its congregation was around seventy or eighty members in size and fun to be around. The worship music was awesome. And the meetings were informally held in a school gymnasium.

It seemed the perfect fit for me.

Though giving prophetic words was not what I hoped to be doing, I knew the Lord used me on good days and bad days as a prophetic voice. So, to be safe, I went up to the pastor after the first service.

“Do you have any rules about giving prophetic words at your church?” I asked him.

He smiled and shook his head. “No, we don’t,” he said. “We encourage people to give prophetic words.”

Over the following four weeks, I broke every rule he said that he did not have. Each Sunday, he was upset with me about something.

“You said there were no rules,” I whispered in exasperation one time.

“That was before I knew you,” he exclaimed. “And I’ve never met anyone like you in my thirty years of ministry.”

Finally, we met for lunch, hoping to settle our differences. It’s not that we didn’t like each other or anything like that. It’s just that he was comfortable with prophetic BB guns and I was an AK-47 assault rifle. We were miles apart in our prophetic thinking.

“Listen,” he said toward the end of our conversation, “why don’t you just submit yourself under my ministry. Then, when the Lord tells me to release you into full-time prophetic ministry, I will let you know. All of the doors of our denomination will then be open to you.”

“What if you don’t hear the Lord’s voice for my calling and life?” I asked.

He blinked. “I had not thought about that,” he replied with his eyes looking down.

The meeting ended with us giving each other hugs and going our separate ways.

The next day, I received a letter in the mail from a member of the church who was not even aware of my meeting with the pastor. She wrote that I was rebellious and needed to submit myself under pastoral authority. And if I failed to follow her so-called godly counsel, she felt my prophetic calling would never come forth. As in never, ever!

I was upset and did what Hezekiah did when he received a letter from an enemy of Israel. I walked around, reading the letter to the Lord.

“Lord, she says I’m rebellious and that I need to submit under pastoral authority. I don’t even understand pastoral authority, what is it?” I went on and on until finally I had finished.

Then I heard the Holy Spirit say, “Too much pastoring in the church.”

(Continued in Part 3)