How to make open space in your life.

Oh that all of the LORD's people were prophets,
and the LORD would put His spirit upon them.

Where the Spirit of the Lord is,
there is freedom.

In Mark 7, 8, and 9
the disciples forbid people from coming to Jesus,
stop people from healing,
and prevent children from being blessed.

In Numbers 11, 
Joshua tries to stop 
two men from prophesying.

There is a common thread throughout the readings today.
It is this:
there are folks doing things 
by the Holy Spirit
that are outside the established structure.
And both Moses and our Lord Jesus
respond to this problem the same way.
Whoever is not against us is for us.
Oh that all of God's people were prophets.
There is a reason the Holy Spirit
is most often described as water. 
Water in the form of steam can go anywhere.
Water can break rocks
and move mountains.
Water can go everywhere
and transform everything.
The Holy Spirit is “strong like water”
whereas religion is brittle
and fragile.

And this is another key piece of discipleship
and it runs deeply contrary 
to religious thinking.
If a person,
and in our case,
artists and creative people,
choose to empty themselves,
become servants,
listen to God,
take up their crosses
and deny themselves,
they have created a vacuum.
That vacuum can only be filled 
by the Holy Spirit.
Pastor Cho
in Korea
once prayed that God would make open space in his life
so that God could fill it.
When we embark on the path of discipleship,
it is a path of death,
but that death creates a way for resurrection.

And it is this decision to go to the cross
with Jesus
that results in a tendency among the religious
to become morbid.
And you see this kind of morbid
spirituality,
focused on self mortification,
discipline,
and asceticism
in lots of places.
Discipline is only half the equation,
and if you stay there,
you become fixated on sin
and you do become very negative.
Or you create a theology for the strong
for those who have the strength
to look good without God.
This is the cost without the grace.

In true discipleship, you empty yourself 
to make a place for God to fill.
And in both these readings today,
Jesus and Moses are in agreement.
Oh that all of God's people were prophets.
Oh that everyone was doing miracles in my name.
This brings us back to something I said a few years ago.

Jesus
did not come to establish a religion.
He came to set up a Kingdom.

And Moses knew this.
It was not about forming a religion in the desert.
It was about creating a people,
who would bring the Kingdom of YHWH to the earth.
They were called to be a nation of priests,
not for themselves alone,
but for all the nations.
Israel's calling was to serve the nations
and bring them to God.
And eventually,
it did happen,
but not the way they wanted or expected.

The religious spirit is at enmity with the Kingdom.
And we see this here in both of these readings.
Moses needs help
and he summons seventy elders to receive 
a portion of the Holy Spirit.
And two of the elders were rebellious,
and didn't do what they were asked to do.
Even so,
God imparted to them anointing
and they began to prophesy.
They were doing this outside the official structures.

The disciples
come to Jesus and they tell him 
that they have stopped people who are healing in his name.
Both Moses and Jesus
do not forbid the healing and the prophecy.
They encourage it.

Psalm 115:2 
Says that God is in heaven
and he does whatever he wills.
God does whatever he wants.

We all have versions of apostolic succession.
You wouldn't believe how often I get asked about my credentials.
I generally don't answer
because when someone wants your credentials,
that's a religious question.
They want a reason to not receive you
because you aren't in their stream,
flow,
or denomination.
It's about who is dominant.
Most religious controversies 
are about getting dominance over other people.
And of course,
that always leads us back to witchcraft.
Witchcraft in every form is about 
control, manipulation, and domination.
Jesus,
when asked about his credentials 
said
the lame walk,
the blind see,
the deaf hear,
the dead rise,
and the poor receive good news.
Blessed is anyone who is not offended by me."
Jesus said,
judge a tree by its fruit.

And for us,
this is really important.
I had a good hippy Jew friend who worked with me as an artist.
She always told the company,
when she was asked to do some corporate thing:
"I'm not a joiner."
We are living in a time
when all the religious institutions
seem hopelessly corrupt.
A core part of Belonging House
are "dones."
These are folks who are done with the institutional church.
And to religious people
who are looking for the sign on the door,
or the certificate,
or the right theology,
this is very offensive.
Paul chastised the Corinthians
when they made factions.
They were following "streams"
Peter, Apollos, or Paul.
Paul said you better follow Jesus.
Jesus is the rabbi, not us.
Jesus is the King.
Jesus is Lord.
And Paul says in the second chapter of I Corinthians
that we do not make our decisions based on human wisdom
but by the wisdom of the Holy Spirit.
Whenever you fall into human wisdom,
what the Greek calls "soulishness,"
you begin to see cracks and crevices in the body of Christ.
This is the circulation problem.
Divisions increase,
and people begin forming little camps 
around human thought systems.
And these thought systems often become
demonic strongholds.
There is only one solution,
turning to God
and being filled with the Holy Spirit.

So we are back to this core idea:
Where the Spirit of the Lord is
there is freedom.
When we talk about disciples in the arts,
we have to talk about the Holy Spirit.
Jesus said that the wind blows where it will.
The Wind,
the Breath,
the Ruach,
is the Holy Spirit.
And Jesus tells Nicodemus
in the third chapter of John
that so it is with everyone who is born of the Holy Spirit.
Discipleship 
is not discipline and self-control.
Discipleship
is making the ongoing decision 
to deny yourself,
die to your own desires,
and to receive.
And this is where a lot of people miss it.
You need to be emptied,
so that you can be filled.
Lots of people preach the death
without the resurrection.

This is why 
there is this ongoing series of scandals
going on. 
It's finally reached the squeaky-clean evangelicals.

You cannot preach deny yourself,
and leave an empty hole.
And you cannot preach sanctity
without the Power of the Holy Spirit.
It's sham theology.

We all have needs.
If you don't fill the void
with the Holy Spirit,
you will go after
money,
sex,
and power.

That's a cheap imitation
of Provision,
Wholeness,
and Anointing.
And it costs a lot to get those things.
For full disclosure,
in this year of being stretched hard
I have had many nights where I was severely tempted.
And I had to put my hand on my heart
and say,
Jesus,
if you don't meet the need in my heart,
then I am going to go out and do something that 
will hurt me and others.
I need you to meet my need.
And the Holy Spirit
met the need in my heart.
And when you do this over and over again,
you gain strength,
you gain authority,
and you gain anointing.
Provision, wholeness, and anointing are 
much better than money, sex, and power.
And there are too things that are really okay,
struggle and progress.
If you are struggling in any area
God can meet your need.
That’s back to humility.
This is the Kingdom.

And Jesus tells us,
you don't have to be in the right denomination
or the right church.
As much as I love the Church catholic,
I have learned
that God does what ever he wills.
And I have seen the Lord move in the most
unlikely of places.
We are called to judge a tree by its fruit.
God did not say judge a tree by its credentials.

So how do we receive this?
We have talked about self denial,
and about taking up your cross.
Often when you sit and listen to God,
you will be giving difficult instructions.
So first,
if you are listening to God,
you are listening to the Holy Spirit.
We hear people say
"the spirit told me."
Be careful,
you don't want just any spirit,
you WILL be deceived.
You want the Holy Spirit.
And the Holy Spirit is going to say
Jesus is Lord.
The Holy Spirit is going to lead you to Jesus
and to the clear word of God.
So you listen to God,
and God gives you some difficult direction.
And you know that it is more than you can do.
God is always going to give you an impossible job.
That's great.
You have to depend on God.
And so you say,
Lord,
I am completely ill equipped for what you want me to do.
I do not have the _____ that I need to do this.

Then you invite the Holy Spirit to come.
You ask,
you do not order the Holy Spirit.

O Holy Spirit,
beloved of my soul.
Fill me, console me,
strengthen me,
guide me.
Give me your orders.
Whatever you ask,
I submit to you,
only show me your will.

And then you sit.
I put my hand on my heart,
and I breathe in the Holy Spirit.
I breathe you in Holy Spirit.
I receive you.
And I receive all of your fruit
Love, joy, peace,
patience,
kindness,
gentleness,
self-control.
By the power of the Holy Spirit,
Jesus,
I know you are in me.
I need you Jesus.
Jesus all your qualities that I need
I ask you to manifest in me.
All the gifts you have for me
to carry out your will
and advance the Kingdom
I ask you to give me and release in me.
Lord,
I want everything you have for me today.
Only show me your will.
And then I breathe again.

And this is how you begin to walk out the promises
that Jesus gives to his disciples:
You will do greater works than the ones I do.

This is discipleship.
You empty yourself,
and you ask God to fill you.
You cannot have one without the other.