Weekly Dispatch --Finishing Well

Finishing Well by Kevin Clancey

It is God's desire that we finish well. Solomon didn't. Asa didn't. But we can.

2 Chronicles 14-16 is the story of King Asa’s reign in Judah. Asa was one of Judah’s good kings. He established reforms in the land that ended pagan idolatry during his long rule. The Bible says because of this King Asa and Judah had a long period of peace during his time. Asa only had two conflicts while he was King and was victorious in both. Yet the story doesn’t end well for Asa. During his final years, Asa stopped seeking the Lord. He turned to foreign alliances for political security instead of praying for God’s guidance. He stopped listening to the voice of God through the prophet Hanani, and imprisoned the prophet when he brought a corrective word from God. And finally Asa fell ill and sought the aid of physicians, who in his day were more like sorcerers, and again did not seek God. Like his great grandfather Solomon, Asa is the story of a man who began well but ended poorly.

In 2 Chronicles 15:2 the prophet Azariah says to Asa, “The Lord is with you when you are with Him, if you seek Him, He will be found by you, but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you.” The Bible is full of promises that God will be found by those who seek Him. But often those who find Him become comfortable in their circumstances and forget about God when life is going well. Many who start out well end poorly.

It is God’s desire for his children that we finish well. Solomon didn’t, Asa didn’t, but we can. This week we will look at God’s provision for us to finish well both in our own lives and in the life of the church seeking to sustain and grow revival.

Messy Revivals or Clean Cemeteries?

In Matthew 13 Jesus tells the parable of the weeds and the wheat. In this parable Jesus describes the wheat and weeds growing side by side. The workers want to pull the weeds but the master forbids them to do so. He tells his workers to let the weeds and the wheat grow side by side, for if the workers pull the weeds they will also inadvertently pull some of the wheat as well. Jesus says the wheat which represents his work and the weeds which represent the devil's work will be separated by his angels at the end of time.
I believe this parable has real application to revival and Holy Spirit manifestations which have happened throughout church history and are happening today. In western Christianity there is a strong preoccupation with neatness and order and a real disdain for the messiness of revival. We have a rationalistic tendency to categorize anything we can’t understand as being of the flesh or the devil and try to tame it or put a stop to it. Even in churches that are ‘open to the Holy Spirit’, (I have learned to dislike that phrase) we only allow so much. In doing this we quench the Spirit and damage the wheat in our zeal for a weed-less church.
About six years ago the Holy Spirit broke out in a new, exciting and messy way in the church I was pastoring. Some people loved it, some people disliked it and left and many endured it without much enthusiasm. But I learned some things. First, Holy Spirit likes to have reign in the church and He is not obligated to us to explain what He is doing. It is not our church and He is not our pet to do our bidding. The church belongs to Jesus and His Spirit brings Him to us and us to Him as He sees fit. Our job is to go with Him, not to tame Him our control Him. Second, we often use the word discernment as a mask word for control and control always has its root in fear. We are afraid of looking strange, we are afraid of God being totally in control of our lives and bodies, we are often bound by the opinions of others and what they might think. Third, when God touches people powerfully He intends it to bring fruit but that fruit is often conditioned by people’s responses.
I think I learned two important things during that time to maximize fruitfulness. First, ignore the weeds. This is hard for western Christians to do, we want our revivals pure, but Jesus cautions us that in our zeal for weed pulling we destroy what He is trying to do; we quench the Spirit and actually pour water on revival fire. Second to get the full fruitfulness from people’s encounters with God we need to marry powerful encounters with discipleship.
Two examples taught me this. One of the examples is from church history and the other one from my own history.
During the early 1800’s the Presbyterians, Baptists and Methodists came together on the American frontier and held a series of communion meetings in Kentucky. The most famous of these was at Cane Ridge in 1802. The Holy Spirit fell powerfully at these meetings, conversions, healings, deliverances and strange manifestations abounded. The description of these meetings makes the wildest of today’s revival gatherings look mild. After these meetings the Presbyterians were the most critical of the manifestations and tried to calm things down, the Baptist were a little more accepting and the Methodist embraced just about everything that was going on. During the following decade it was the Methodists who spread most rapidly and powerfully along the borders of the American frontier; the Baptists grew, but not as much; and the Presbyterians brought up the rear. All three groups were powerfully touched but the ones who did the least weed pulling got the most wheat.
The other thing the Methodists did was they rigorously followed up on their converts, put them in small groups and discipled them. The early Methodists got their name because they had a method of bringing people beyond conversion into discipleship and they applied it. Better than anyone else the early Methodist married powerful God encounters with discipleship and it bore maximum fruit.
In my own history, when God moved powerfully on our church He especially moved upon some of our youth. We had young people falling out in the Spirit, crying, laughing, shaking, spinning, prophesying and experiencing dramatic touches and calls from God. Looking back at the fruit of all this I noticed that the boys did better than the girls over the years of living out these experiences in positive and fruit bearing ways. The girls were equally, and in some cases more powerfully touched and don’t get me wrong many of them are still going strong, but some fell away and to this day are not living out the calling that was placed upon them when they were encountered. But to a greater degree the boys have done better to this time. There was one big difference. Many of the boys who were encountered were a part of a discipleship group we called Baalam’s Donkeys. This group met weekly to eat, study, hold each other accountable and pray. In other words they were discipled. It wasn’t until much later that we tried to start such a group for the girls. To this day I can’t think of one of those boys who aren’t excelling in their Christian walk. They are helping plant churches, preparing to go on the mission field, leaders in their schools and churches, going to seminary, working as youth pastors, they are doing great. Again the marriage of powerful Holy Spirit encounter and discipleship grew good wheat.
We spend way too much energy weeding in church. I want the wheat. I want revival, I don’t care if it is messy and there are fleshly indulgences, I would rather have messy revival then a clean cemetery for my church experience. But I have learned that God encounters don’t replace discipleship, they are the point of discipleship. We study, pray and hold each other up not as religious duties but to get the maximum harvest from the encounters we have with God. There is no dichotomy between revival encounters and discipleship, but when married together there is great fruitfulness.

How bad do we want the next level?

We want to go to the next level of intimacy with God and fruitfulness in God. We want revival in the church and transformation in our land. What Christian would argue with those statements? But the truth is we don’t want those things if they come with a price tag. And they do come with a price tag and it is a price we are seldom willing to pay. It is not the price we normally hear about, pray more, give more. In fact the price will be different every time. But almost always the price will be offensive, costly and unexpected. The Jews wanted their Messiah, he came, but he was from Nazareth, came from an unwed mother and didn’t look at all like King David. God had answered their prayer but in a package they didn’t recognize, He was offensive. I have been in situations where we have been praying for healing and one person gets healed and another doesn’t. It’s confusing and awkward, it leaves unanswered questions. Many would rather not have healing if it comes in that package, better to back away from it then have confusion. I have heard pastors say I want more power but I don’t want people to fall in church. God send it, but send it my way. And whatever happens don’t let attendance and giving go down. What if God sent revival and it meant you had to travel a long way and have a preacher you found offensive lay hands on you? What if it meant leaving a secure job and moving somewhere where you had to trust God to provide? What if it meant being misunderstood by family and losing some friends? The owner of the field sold everything to get the pearl of great price. Proud Naaman had to submit to Elisha’s direction and dip seven times in the dirty Jordan to be healed of leprosy. God wants to know do you want the answer to your prayers enough to pay the price. Are you willing to embrace the offense, whatever it is, and go and do things he says without having all the answers and surely being misunderstood. The price tag will be different every time but three things are sure, it will be costly, it will be unexpected, and it will in some way be offensive. How bad do we want the next level?