A Single Day's Divine "Coincidences" Might Sometimes Point the Way.

Over the years Tricia and I have prayerwalked in Northampton as I've written about. It gives us the feel of grabbing hold of and connecting God's Kingdom values with the spiritual landscape of this unique, small city. I experience his Presence when I pray this way.

 Yesterday, I ran across a video of Tempe church planter Jay Moore. It's entitled Prayer Walking for Ordinary Christians Living Missional Lives: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MissionalMeditations/~3/9bdJm2Hid_I/prayer-walking-for-ordinary-christians.html. Naturally, I was interested in what he had to say. In it he addressed the key reality of spiritual warfare especially in the context of entering into enemy territory and asking him to reveal demonic presences and tear down strongholds which hold people captive.

Smack dab in the middle of watching the video I heard someone coming up the stairs. I put it on pause, got up and greeted Hilary (not her real name). She was very forthright and shook my hand with a grip stronger than many mens' I've shaken. Hillary is an artist. She's also had a tough life. She does pencil sketches, and wanted to invite me to a show she was a part of in Northampton next week in the hopes she could have one at our gallery. She admitted she was really excited by the drawings she'd done, especially those of the Hindu gods (when she said it my mind actually flashed to the imagine Art Gallery filled with portraits of Hindu deities...what?). Then she exclaimed, "They really saved my life!!!" Her voice was filled with passion and sincerity. She seemed nervous; our interaction lasted on a few minutes.

I told her I would go see her work and I will. But after, I wondered what was the chance that when I was looking at a video on prayerwalking and spiritual warfare that a woman would come into our gallery and praise the Hindu gods in her life? A divine "coincidence?" God pointing and saying: "See where I'm taking you?" I had one of those God moment feelings we all get from time to time. Something's up.

Then, it happened again last night.

I was at my Friday night post hosting the gallery when four folks came in, parents in their 60's with their daughter-in-law and son. The parents were visiting from Cleveland. They began to tour the gallery when mom knocked on my office door. She praised the gallery, mentioned it had this amazingly peaceful vibe (it does and I know why) and told me she was a therapist. She mentioned she was Jewish when I told her of the TWiNE exhibit we'll host in May. Some the weavers are Jewish, and one in particular, has a tapestry memorializing the Holocaust. Then, she asked me if I knew where there was a store where she could purchase statues of gods for a friend - there is. I asked if she meant "like Hindu gods," and she said "yes!" She also was aware we are a church with a gallery. I'd mentioned it to her when she asked why we were here. She thought it was cool. Her spirituality was characterized as a belief in the universe, God or "whatever" as she put it. We fit there somewhere.

For the second time in the day I was talking someone relating closely to other gods. They came to me because of the gallery. Again, I wondered what was the chance I'd have a conversation about other gods on the same day? Both women talked as though they had tapped into divine reality. It made them happy. I thought of deceit and strongholds destroying lives. You might think that a bit strong. I don't and I have no malice toward the people; I don't have hatred for the false gods, however. I see their handiwork.

Twenty minutes later, I was in the office when two women came into the gallery. I did not hear them actually walk through. They were very quiet. The music may have covered their presence. They knocked on my open office door to inquire about the gallery. They loved the space. I mentioned it was an expression of imagine/Northampton, a church. She responded, "I know, but what kind?" I told her we were Christians, followers of Christ, but not affiliated with any denomination. The imagine Art Gallery was our effort to connect with the arts community in Northampton. They thanked me again and left. Not sure what they were thinking.

While the third conversation didn't lead to a discussion of other gods, it was clear the Holy Spirit was inviting me to pray in a very specific way. Northampton has a plethora of spiritualities all welcome, while Christianity is tolerated best if it behaves. While they might seem benign on the surface they are demonic strongholds all dressed up, likely guided by deceiving angels of light. Some might think my view judgmental, but the Scriptures don't. The Kingdom of God in the Old and New Testaments presents YHWH and His Son, Jesus Christ, as warriors overcoming the demonic forces of great darkness and death by proclaiming the truth, setting the captives free, giving sight to the blind, battling injustice and oppression, healing the sick, and giving dignity to the wretched and despised of the earth; the voiceless, unwanted, marginalized and weak.

My day began with a video about how to pray for others that the Kingdom might come in a particular place, and ended with folks who do not know Christ, crossing our threshold and revealing opportunity.  

Therefore, my conclusion from yesterday is fourfold:

1. I need to pray with a more laser-beam sagacity about what God is revealing and confronting in this place with his tearing down and healing love. Divine love sears evil and consumes idols as if they're kindling. Discernment is paramount; without it we're nice, well-meaning people chasing our tails.

2. I mustn't fall into a sleepwalk with the imagine/Northampton routine I live. Church culture can easily become an end in and of itself, including our missional church culture. Efforts such the gallery, and the Open Table, the imagine Community Garden are in the right direction. There is more though...much more.

3. The spiritual people we meet here - there are many - are leery of us when they suspect we'll promote Christianity as the way, the truth, and the life if they get near us. And we must, but through the door of unbinding grace and love, the kind that demolishes fear because we live the courage of our liberty to love beyond first perceptions.

4. God must grant me the grace to struggle for a true manifestation of the Kingdom of the Almighty that will  break though illusion, evil and pretense in this historic place of awakening and quickening of the Spirit. Without it, I'll remain merely a clattering cymbal. Not good.

Why I Am a Redemptive Subversive: An Unfolding Manifesto of Sorts.

1. The world suffers pain and travail, always in desperate need of this God it knows dimly or not at all. People live their lives never imagining this God lives desiring to be discovered and known through what he has already revealed in Jesus and what he has made.

THEREFORE, BY SEEKING HIS GRACIOUS ENABLING EACH DAY, I WILL TRY TO:

Be an instrument of his redemptive revealing in the remaining days I have been given.

Reflect him in thought, attitude, word and action.

Graciously subvert people's fears and skepticism about this God without wounding or oppressing them in any way.

Free the captive so they can discover him to be a liberator beyond their imagining.

Help the poor so they can discover his care and generosity beyond their imagining.

Open the eyes of the blind so they can discover his beauty, truth and power beyond their imagining.

Heal the broken-hearted so they can discover his compassion and affection beyond their imagining.

Refresh the weary so they can discover his rest and gentle empowering beyond their imagining.

Enliven the crushed in spirit so they can discover his promise for the future that gives them meaning beyond their imagining.

Love the unlovely so they can discover his delight in them beyond their imagining.

Free the embittered so they can discover his invitation to forgiveness and peace beyond their imagining.

Encourage the humiliated so they can discover his gentle ability to "lift their heads" beyond their imagining.

Befriend the critical so they can discover his truth and find felicity beyond their imagining.

Give a voice to the voiceless so they can discover this God who helps them find their unique place beyond their imagining.

Defend the oppressed so they can discover his justice on their behalf beyond their imagining.

Live the Good News so they can discover he is the seductive joy of hope beyond their imagining.


2. This Trinitarian God is the most spectacular Being without parallel in the entire universe, utterly transcendent and fully immanent. There are no other gods before him or after him. He is breath-taking in all his attributes and deserves to be shown as so.

THEREFORE, BY SEEKING HIS GRACIOUS ENABLING EACH DAY, I WILL TRY TO:

Never present in my thoughts, words, actions or attitudes a God who is puny, boring, tamable or worthy of ignoring.

Point to his unfathomable power and incomparable greatness as the Creator and LORD of the universe along side his profound humility and saving graciousness in Jesus.

Guide people to the unbounded magnificence of His Being in what he has made in Creation, and how he has ennobled men and women with the ability to create culture in all its multitude of forms.

Never knowingly contribute to the "binding" of God through man-made systems of thought, tradition or innovation whether from within the Church or without.

Ignite the stunningly creative love of God which subverts hatreds of all kinds, heals severed human relationships, turns horrific wounds of the heart into the means by which others are healed, and gives true life to people who have lived blindly under the thrall of death their entire lives.

3. This wildly unfettered God who is infinitely more than we can imagine does not rule over the world as a capricious tyrant, but as the wise Creator, Servant/Savior/Redeemer and Benevolent Lord (the Good King) who voluntarily withholds his rightful power to judge and punish in favor of redemptively subverting the obdurate human heart through grace-filled love which will ultimately set everything to rights. He is under no compunction to do so beyond his own freedom and joy.

THEREFORE, BY SEEKING HIS GRACIOUS ENABLING EACH DAY, I WILL TRY TO:

Recognize and move toward my constant need to be redemptively subverted by God's grace-filled love so I can be free to not use or dehumanize others for my security or gain, even those who wish to do me harm.

Reflect the intention and character of God, by how I treat others, always working to subvert what wounds and demeans them (even of their own making), and turns them toward true life and relationship.

Glorify this God by being transparent toward him and real toward others such that he is discovered.

Find ways of celebrating the beauty, mystery, and dignity of all people, including those who do everything they can to destroy those qualities in themselves.

Spend my days redemptively subverting anything that turns people away from this God toward impotent idols and counterfeit gods no matter how much they seem to glitter.

Spend my days trying to open others to the Triune One who is far more more than they can imagine and wants to reveal his heart to them, each one.

POSTSCRIPT: I know none of the above is even remotely possible for me without his help every minute of every day. I am utterly dependent on him to "unlock" me. But, I can see no other way of life that makes sense or offers the kind of real joy and freedom my unruly heart has always longed for and believed was possible. In fact, I no longer look for any other option. As it is, I hope I can spend the rest of my days living as I have described. If I can, I think it will have been a life well lived for me, my wife and family, and the people God has brought across my path to receive from, give to, and work with.

SOLI DEO GLORIA