Joy and Fear in the Presence of God

I was at a college group this week and spoke about the supernatural reality of the finished work of Christ and the stewardship of grace as it pertains to John 20:23. The power and presence of God flowed thick as the revelation of grace flooded the room and it was a beautiful night. Afterward, a young man named Micah was standing near me and I asked him if he had something to impart. He said, "I feel overwhelmed with the fear of the Lord." The interesting thing is that when he said this, he was smiling. He laid hands on another young man and released to him a revelation of the fear of the Lord. Both young men became flooded by joy and I just stood back to watch realizing that I was learning something here and I needed to pay attention.

I recalled being in a service where the fear of the Lord was the topic and as the speaker continued to expound on the depravity of man the heaviness in the room became quite tangible. People wept, cried, and the assumption was that repentance for sin was happening. I thought at the time, "This is is revival. It's dark, depressing, and heavy, but I guess this is what you have to walk through to get free." Oddly enough though, the heaviness never lifted and joy never felt like an appropriate response. As I remembered that night, I got a picture of a guy walking into a prison cell and sitting down on the cot at the cell door slams shut with an echoing clang. The same look of depressed heaviness and the tears of sorrow as you accept the weight of your punishment were the same look that I saw in that church that night. I got another picture though, and it was of a guy leaving a prison, filling his lungs with fresh air, as the gate opens before him and he is free. The tears of gratitude and the joy of stepping into a world formerly unattainable yet always within reach, that was the look I saw in the college group the other night.

Here's the deal. When you have a revelation of grace, the fear of the Lord manifests as joy. It's the result of the safety and protection of God rather than the wrath and judgement of God. Religion imprisons, Christ sets free. Your response will reveal which one has captured your heart.

Laws of Nature and the Kingdom of God

I get quite a few questions about the coin on the wall thing. This is my response to a friend recently on Facebook.

I feel a certain restriction in trying to put anything in writing about it. Most of the little that I have put in writing has been copied and reposted many more times than I ever expected or am comfortable with. I have no problem talking about it in person, because there's something about the dna of hunger that's communicated voice to voice, Spirit to Spirit. What I will say is that questions of challenge, I tend to steer away from, because the discussions are rarely fruitful. But questions of curiosity I love, because they come from a teachable heart looking to learn and desiring more than is currently known. From the story you relayed about the young boy who tied a prophetic promise to a challenge to a natural law, I feel bad for him as well. Consider what would happen if it were to work that way though. It would be the potential birth of a superstar and potentially position a young man for a proud ruin at an early age. I'm finding these days that God rarely honors presumption that empowers self over others, even if it's for noble purpose.

My daughter (13) was asked by a woman in Florida to explain the coin thing. Sara prefers to show rather than tell so she asked for a coin and the woman took out a nickel and she had the lady hold the coin to the wall (could have been a window, ceiling, whatever) and Sara held it there with her. She then began to tell her about how she began to realize that laws of nature are not impossible to invade just because man has called them "laws". Jesus creates the law of gravity and then treats it as optional. That matter isn't meant to be restrictive to the advancing of the Kingdom so if there's someone on the other side of a wall that I need to minister to, that the matter of this wall should not be able to hinder my capacity to move through it to accomplish His word. Things like that. The coin continued to fall over and over again as they both held it and let go. Suddenly Sara gets quiet, takes her finger off the coin and steps back a few feet. A minute or so goes by in silence and then the lady takes her finger off the nickel and it stays. She has a dramatic "reaction" to say the least. All of this happened in the sight of quite a few people. I asked Sara what she was learning there. She said that the Holy Spirit spoke to her and told her to stand back. She said, "Dad, it's not about me. It's about what He wants to show her. I just knew I needed to get my hands off of it." The presence of the Lord was so thick, I even feel it strong here as I type this recalling the wisdom God reveals through the process of either being childlike or becoming childlike again.

The supernatural power of God has been reduced (for many) to myth at the least, a wish at the most. So we've stressed relationship with God but have not taken into account the supernatural nature of His ways as it pertains to us. Are you a physical being having a Spiritual experience or are you a Spiritual being having a physical experience? If it's the latter, the supernatural should simply be natural when it comes to the normal relationship with God who is Spirit. If it's not, then who exactly do you have a relationship with in your walk with God? There are people who claim to know God so well but deny His power at work in their lives. When we do that we have made Him into our image and that's not who He is.

We have become all too familiar with a God we hardly know.