I’ve been having versions of a similar dream lately.
I’m back out on the field crazy and on fire for Jesus and no-one around me matches my enthusiasm. I’m made fun of, I stick out and I feel lonely in the dream. I dance and raise my hands in worship among the monotone voices and I lay hands on those around me and pray for healing among skeptic eyes. And in the dream I question my behavior as if the enemy is speaking to me there. “Don’t stick out, it’s not about you. You’re making people uncomfortable. Go ahead and sit down.”
Disturbed, I rise up out of bed and pray. Phew. I’m on the field now among people thirsty for Lordship. It’s not true. I’m not alone.
At least not yet.
We’ve been in Kyrgyzstan for over two weeks now but my brain and heart is still catching up from everything I experienced in Armenia and everything that happened at debrief and PVT (our parent vision event) and the Burn (our 24/7 prayer week out in the desert in yurts).
My last blog was a bit of a lament on the Armenian Orthodox church and what I saw spending countless hours praying in and around and for them.
I’ve been thinking about why those churches frustrated me so much and why I felt so burned by the apathy and the religious monotony there.
I struggled in Armenia. My heart was heavy. My body felt lethargic. I literally felt hypnotized half the time struggling to get up and go, struggling to remain passionate for ministry, and struggling to hit the streets.
What happened to me there? What was I carrying?
Back in Jaco, Costa Rica I watched a film on Youtube called “Sheep Among Wolves.” You should watch it regardless of what you believe. It’s free. Go watch it.
It’s about the rising underground church in Iran and it will kick you in the pants if you’re a comfortable Western Christian. There’s a story about a woman from Iran who converts to Christianity and marries a Western man who takes her to America where he feels she will be happier and more fulfilled. She doesn’t last. She explains that the church in America is under a Satanic Lullaby and they won’t wake up. They aren’t hungry for Jesus and His Lordship, they aren’t experiencing the gifts and freedom He offers and they aren’t passionate about making disciples. Who wants to be a part of that kind of church?
So they move to Iran, join the persecuted church there and they make disciples who are on fire, willing to risk their lives so that the message of Jesus can spread. Incredible.
I think the reason that Armenia was hard for me, the reason that I struggled and fought was because they too are under the lullaby, maybe a thicker one actually and my flesh was fighting it.
I watched as people glum as can be walked in to the church, bought candles, lit them, made the sign of the cross, kissed a gate and left. I watched dead eyes, joyless spirits and mute tongues. I saw grandiose buildings housing lifeless services where the bible was nowhere to be found and the spirit of the Lord was absent. I wept as I heard the name of Jesus mentioned like a passing thought and saw the bondage that the people who claimed to know Him possessed.
They think they know Him. They don’t. They think they’re saved. They aren’t. They think this is it. It isn’t.
God has been teaching me that the orthodox experience, void of the gifts of the spirit and drenched in empty tradition found nowhere in the bible is not so different from the American church. And my battle with the people who think they know Jesus but don’t is the same battle in America.
It’s a hard word. I know.
The truth is that America has fallen ill to as much cultural Christianity as Armenia. I know plenty of people that would check that box on their census card but rarely step foot in a church, haven’t prayed in years and use their bible as a decoration on their bookshelf. They’re not interested. It’s not their life.
I know a whole other group that attend church regularly, are a part of a few bible studies and serve at church but still have Jesus more as their belief system and less as their Lord.
Fallen under the satanic lullaby of materialism, our culture prides itself on financial success, the quest for happiness and fulfillment and a false morality and goodness that will make our lives feel complete. Still purposeless and wandering we are the most drugged, the most obese and the most unhappy country out there all while boasting as the largest Christian country in the world.
It’s because we actually aren’t.
The gospel you’ve heard might have something to do with Jesus dying on the cross for your sins so that you can inherit eternity in heaven with Him. That’s not wrong. But the part that gets left out because it’s a far more sacrificial choice is that in order to be a Christian, (a little Christ), you have to be willing to make Jesus your Lord, not just your savior. You have to be willing to die to your old self and your old ways in every form and fashion in order to pursue looking like Him. You have to be willing to be reborn and understand that your life is not your own. It never really was anyway.
Billy Graham once said that 2/3rds of the church is going to hell. That’s of the church, not of the population. Let that sink in.
In Matthew 13:24-30 Jesus talks about the Kingdom of God and explains that the Lord will gather us all up at the end and separate the good seed from weeds. He tells us that He won’t pull the weeds until harvest because if He did that He would hurt the good seed. People of God, He is talking about the church, not just the total population! While the church continues to fail, God will not demolish it because He knows there are real ones among the weeds but that means there are people sitting in pews today that will not be gathered up at harvest.
The reality is that a large chunk of people who are calling themselves Christians in Armenia, in America and all over the world will NOT be with Jesus when they die.
Check out Matthew 7: 21-23. To me, it’s the scariest part of the whole bible but because He loves us He warns us. Don’t be asleep. Don’t think you’re in when you aren’t. Just saying you know me and believe in me, isn’t enough.
You might think you know Him. You might not. You might think you’re saved. You might not be. You might think your faith is it. Statistics shout it likely isn’t.
If this convicted you, you might want to have a conversation with Jesus about what place He has in your life. If this didn’t convict you and you are unmoved, you might want to have a conversation with Jesus about your heart for the lost.
God wants to build an army of believers who fight evil, disciple lost sheep and experience the beauty and freedom of the kingdom of heaven on earth. He’s not interested in only seeing you in a pew once a week and praying before dinner.
Let me tell you, the cost of dropping everything to follow Jesus is great. He demands your whole life and your whole heart. He demands your obedience. And let me tell you also, the gain of following Jesus is great. He will revive you from fear, anxiety, hopelessness and purposelessness. He will give you a plan for your life and a future. He will give you a heart of flesh and you’ll love like you never have before. He will lead you and strengthen you and call you every beautiful thing.
There is no greater love.
I’ve recently felt a heavy conviction to share this message with my world, to tell the hard truth and to tell it in love and to pray with all my might that the people I care for deeply will receive it and respond to it.
The thing you’ve been searching for your whole life, the little voice in your head that calls you to goodness, the answer to all your questions and your struggles is ONLY found in Jesus Christ becoming your Lord. He’s not a gimmick, he’s not for sale, he’s not a control mechanism or a prosperity message. He IS the message. The only reason you exist is because He chose you to be here because He loves you and wants to be in mutual relationship with you. Following Him means not every question get’s answered because we look towards an unexplainable God who has wisdom, knowledge, and power beyond our understanding. It’s one of the reasons we worship Him. He is greater than our minds can comprehend.
I would be a careless hearted person if I didn’t share the truth. I would make a mockery of what Jesus has done on the cross for me and what he has done to restore my life if I didn’t tell you this. I don’t want to be a person that shares only the easy grace filled part of the gospel message. I want to be a person that shares the whole message. I want to stand before God on the last day having left it all on the field not for my own honor but for His.
Don’t fall victim to the Satanic Lullaby that threatens to pacify you with every non life giving thing. No medicine, no relationship, no quick fix and no religion will help you out of the hole that a life without Jesus digs. I promise.
Jesus is holding out his hand asking, not telling. He’s giving you the choice because love doesn’t force. It’s up to you.
To end, I’ll leave you with a psalm I wrote in joy and thankfulness for the Lord hidden away in the desert in a yurt in Kyrgyzstan. A piece of the heart of a follower, not just a believer.
I love the Lord because I’m His daughter, carved by Him in His image
He came for like the wind and gave me the gift of joy in my salvation
He called me clean, pure, righteous and new
He brought blooming foliage to my tired and thirsty heart
He illuminated the dusty attics of my mind
He breathed his fire into my soul
He renewed and reclaimed my heart
When I asked in prayer, He listened to me
He heard my plea for goodness
He gave me new desires
He set my foundation high above so I can see with new eyes and love at new heights
Because He has revealed himself to me, I will give my life, my body, my talents and my dream to Him as Holy and living sacrifices
Because I am called I will charge towards the battlefield He set my feet on
I will not be afraid of man or of evil
He is worthy of my breath, my time, my love and my life
He did it for love, so I do it for love
I am not my own
Hallelujah
Fire. This is spoken with love, truth, and passion. Keep it coming.
Wow! This is deep and so true. It is a struggle. We can’t do it alone.
It’s every day life with our walk with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ with His Light Shining through us. We can’t live for him just when we feel like it. It’s got to be our every second, minute, hour and daily walk. Have Him in the center of everything we do.
Now I will say it’s not always easy as I was humbled and brought to my knees last night in the middle of the parking lot of the hospital during a vigil prayer for our friend in the midst of 50 people or more. This was out of my comfort zone and the Holy Spirit used an old friend to ask me if I would kneel with her. When before the Holy Spirit had prompt me to do this I brushed it off not wanting to cause a scene.
Love and hugs
Y’all are inspiring! God bless
Wow, this is AMAZING! right on the nail head. I hear you, I feel you, I agree with you wholeheartedly.
That is exactly the description of what I have been seeing and The Lords has revealed over and over…
It’s time the body leaves the building and goes out to the streets. We need to reach the lost, the lonely, the thirsty.
We need to brake from this “Satanic lullaby” it is of upmost urgency!
Thank you for being obedient, bold and force, yet humbly walking with your God..”
Micha 6:8
Just a simple thank you sweet sister.
yeah Lindsay, looks like I went to an extra church service today :-).
You like Paul, are “not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God that leads to salvation, to every person who believes it… “Ro 1:16
Thanks for re-centering, recalibrating, re-orientating our hearts to Point true North. As someone once said, “the main thing, is to keep the main thing, the main thing. “
As Dietrich Bonhoffer said,” when God bids a man to come follow him, he bids him to come and die”.
Whoever would come after me was first deny himself, pick up his cross, and follow me. JESUS
How can the truth be anything different, then the God of the universe who knits you together in your mothers womb, spoke the world of trillions of stars in trillions of galaxies into existence, came to this earth in the form of a man, lived the perfect sinless life, died on the cross, was buried, three days later rose from the dead, spent 40 days here and Was seen by over 500 people before ascsending back to the father, and then sending the Holy Spirit to live inside us and empower us to continue the work of making disciples, help build his church, and advance the kingdom of God in our generation before he comes again,
How can a God like that want anything less than as you put it,” a mutual relationship “ with his sons and daughters.
Thanks for reiterating the simple gospel message in your own creative and poetic way, while simultaneously not diluting The radical implications and the demands of the gospel message.
So life-giving, so encouraging, and so worthy of spending our lives for .
Tks Lindsey
Good word. Thank you for sharing. 🙂
Hi Lindsey,
I’ve been haunted lately by a sense of lethargy consuming the lives of many in my circles, and sometimes myself, if I’m being totally honest. This whole COVID shut down has changed people. The isolation seems to be gaining traction to the point of it becoming the new normal. Our Bible Study Fellowship that was full to brim and pouring over to the point of a prayer committee beginning to seeking direction for starting a new base class, has about half as many participants for the 2021-2022 school year and less than half of the leaders came back. The Mosaic congregation looks about half. The social groups I participate in don’t seem to be faring any better. I think the Iranian woman in your post nailed it with her description of the Church and more broadly America being in bondage under a Satanic Lullaby. Trust me, I understand the risks of the virus, but what I’m seeing goes much deeper. If “believers” are this easily extinguished, one has to question if they are believers.
Thank you for your wake-up call. Continue to shout it from the rooftops! If I may, I’d like to share this with my BSF group. Sovereign Lord, awaken your followers! Forgive us Lord for our complacency! May we throw off this Satanic Lullaby and stand firm in our faith!
Thanks for reading Cindy! Feel free to share this far and wide!
Hit hard and right between my eyes about the church in America. We must wake up!
And your poem/psalm is perfect!
Once again, a day lifter for me and I will pray harder for churches here and abroad.
So true! We CANNOT do it alone! God is with us. Thanks for your constant support Jeannie!
I so appreciate your constant support and encouragement Mariae! My dream is that the church will leave it’s sleepy identity for freedom!
Really appreciate your comments always Matt! Thanks for being a great encourager of THE TRUTH!
Thanks Heidi!
Thank You Deon! Very cool to hear from you here.
Thanks Sally! YES! Keep praying for the church!
LOVE IT!!! Get em girl!
That’ll preach! I love your fire and passion, but even more, the love with which you speak and share. It underlines every word!
Thank you for sharing, you’re not alone.
It has been a gift to walk charge alongside you this year.. you inspire me and you call everyone around you higher!!
I love your bold heart Linosey
Jesus we choose to follow.. not just believe!!
Yup, this is it! Thank you for speaking the truth in love. We are all the better because of it!