Thursday, June 3, 2010

Day 144 - Releasing Freedom

Well the question about the food was answered today. It’s pretty good. The ladies cooking it do catering on the side and I was impressed, not only by the quality but by the love in which it was served. I was blessed today, not only by my host couple who have been so gracious, but by all the people in this little church who are so hungry for more of God. We get so caught up some times in size. How big is our church. We need to grow. The old saying about “nickels and noses” is so true in much of the American church today. When leaders are judged on the size of their church instead of the quality of their ministry and their heart for the Kingdom, something is wrong. It affects all of us to some degree. We can’t help being caught up in some aspect of judging our ministry by numbers. Aren’t we supposed to judge our ministry by obedience? If you hear the Father say to stay in this little church for the rest of your life and minister to these fifty people and you left and went to a church of one thousand and it grew to two thousand the world and the church would judge you a huge success. But are you? I can’t see where disobedience to a word from God brings success. Maybe this is an extreme example, but you get the picture. In the Kingdom, it’s not about numbers or size. No, it’s about obedience and running the race you are called to run. So who am I? I don’t have a big ministry or preach to thousands, but if I am true to what God calls me to do then I can impact thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands by radically impacting the hundreds or thousands of people that I do come in contact with.

It’s not really my ministry anyway. It’s His, so if I am true and obedient to Him I can expect to hear those words, ”Well done, good and faithful servant”. What I do, I want to do out of an overflow of His love. As I receive more of His love, I have to give it away. As I give it away I am releasing the Kingdom in my area of influence. I am releasing His love to others. This is true ministry. This, I believe, is the ministry that He is looking for. So we don’t have to be the star of the show. We just have to be willing to show the one who made the stars. I have to be willing to step out of my comfort zone and press into Holy Spirit.

Today was one of those days where I got to step out of my comfort zone. When you facilitate a sozo, you are really just trusting Holy Spirit to lead you and direct you to the right areas. The person being sozoed reports on what he or she is sensing, and then you use certain tools as led by Holy Spirit to find the wounds and lies that are blocking them from being all that Father God has called them to be. It’s like looking at a hose that is not flowing. You know that the water is turned on. And it should be flowing but nothing is coming out the nozzle. You have to find the kinks in the hose that is blocking the flow. That’s pretty much what we do. We work with Holy Spirit to fine the wounds and lies (kinks in the hose) that are blocking the flow of God’s love in their life. Hopefully when we are through then the Love of God is flowing strong, and they can move into all that God has called them into. That’s how it is supposed to work. Like every other ministry, we have different levels of success with different people. Sometimes we hit a home run and sometimes we get them to first base. I can’t do anything, only Holy Spirit can, but it’s my job to cooperate with Him as much as I can to see healing released into the person’s life.

What we have to realize is that whatever we do it’s not about us. All of the glory goes to Him. I am a conduit that He uses to minister through. I have to do my part, but if He doesn’t show up, nothing happens. Well today He showed up. In fact He usually does, because He loves me and loves to see me risk everything for Him. So it really becomes a matter of trust and faith for me, not the person we are ministering to. The question becomes, “Do I trust Him enough to step out”? The more I step out and the more He shows up, the more I am willing to step out more. I was involved in three sozos, probably a total of five hours of ministry. That is a lot, and I was flat worn out when it was over. But I was also blessed at least as much as the people that I ministered to. Each sozo was totally different, and used the tools we have differently. Just as the gifts of the Spirit are tools to be used as needed, so are the tools we use in sozo. Yes, they are learned tools and they can work, but you have to be led by Holy Spirit to know when to use them. So today we used almost all the tools in each sozo, but we used them differently in each. Remember tools are made to be used, but you can find different uses for the same tools. Well, tools in the spiritual can be used like that too.

So, let me end by saying that we saw Prisoners released and Captives set free today. Freedom is a huge part of the Kingdom. It’s one of the main reasons for Jesus’ ministry. Today we saw it in each of the people that we ministered to. It was a good day in the Kingdom, and God is Good.

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