Hung Up On God

The other night I had a dream. In the dream friends were comparing me and a friend of mine to one another. The difficulty was that they were making my friend sound “less spiritual” because he did not talk about the prophetic, visions or dreams. I though about it for a while and I realized that they were looking for the “fire” while my friend was trying to impart strength and understanding of the word of God.

The schisms are less than before but we still have division. We speak of Psalm 133 and yet we allow things to divide us.

My style and flavor of ministry are different than others. Because many can not “see” it, it poses a problem to them. Sometimes it comes down to what one perceives as value or the value. Not necessarily the value of the person, but the values they express. Not everything in the prophetic is fire or exciting. I have long said that while many consider the prophetic too be a “seeing” gift and they talk about eyes and eagle’s eyes, I think more of what we do it that of the digestive system. Our prophetic words and actions are to get “things” going and “cleaned” out more than we care to think. To restore health to the body and remove debris that has clogged up the system. Not very exciting is it?

The very purpose of the five fold ministry, (Ephesians 4:11-12 And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers,for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ;…)was to equip and build up. For what? For ministry and life. Not everyone will do the same thing, the same way.

This week a very rude lady (Perhaps she was trying to get out the door, had a bad call from her husband, etc..) hung up on me. The “slam the phone down”. In a health care provider. (Now you know you have to pray for them, because who wants to be in their business right now. Time to go in and heal all the sick and get them out of there before another law passes…) Wow!

This morning I was thinking, her attitude was hard. She did not know me. I understand she might have been frustrated or hurt. But the simple fact remains, she did not know me. Did not know my situation. Hung up.

Now there are two kinds of “hung up”. For me I am “hung up” on God. I love Him and I want to be around Him. This was different kind.

Instead of “gracefully” choosing a way off the phone, she chose the easy way. Bang! We can all identify on some level. We have been hung up on or hung up on another. (Let me be real. There is no satisfaction to “hanging” up on a cell phone on a telemarketer. We need an “app” that goes bang!)

But here comes the part you do not want to hear. Many believers hang up on God or others with their attitudes.

Many years ago, I had a guest minister who was to speak in my place. During the day, he was seen in a local store, berating the helping, acting self important and yelling so others could hear. I found out about it. I went to see him in his hotel room. I confronted him with the action. He responded with “who cares?” I spent a lot of time talking to him about this. Finally, I said “skip the meeting. We are done.”

Everyone is a target for God. For His love and His goodness. Whether they are in your church, your family or the person behind the counter.

Is your attitude pushing people away from God or compelling them by His love through you? One of the reasons is you do not want to hear the truth, because maybe it is a hard truth, that requires many changes. But it is time to get hung up on God and not hang up on Him when He speaks, when He calls.

Love does not hang up. It hangs in there.