While driving to work yesterday, I was thinking about those who can not sit down or sit out. If something is not happening they feel as though they have missed God somehow.

The motion has in so many cases become more important than the Creator.

I am not saying “stop doing things” I am asking you to inquire of the Lord. To look at the results.

The very nature of community ought to be life changing to us. That ought to be a stepping off place, not a landing place. It ought to provide strength, friendship and encouragement. It is from that place we have the underpinnings to move ahead.

There often seems to be a thinking in the body of Christ that if we’re not moving we’re not making progress. Perhaps it’s propagated by the fact that there are many people who believe that activity is the answer. (Others that believe that doing nothing is the answer.)

God said that faith without works is dead. Clearly something is to be done.

But what? I think if we are really honest a lot of what we do has had mediocre results.. (I do believe the tide is turning.)

I myself have found that there are people that think that I may have given up on the miracle working power of God because I am not out there 24/7. Their reason is simple they say; you have stopped prophesying the way you did. You do not any longer lay hands upon the sick all the time. You aren’t doing meetings. The reality of it is I still “do” all those things. I love signs, I love wonders, & I love miracles. But with out the principle working power of love, all those things are just things. And so I have tapped in to what I believe are the moments God has designed for me.

At no point in my life do I think that anything short of an encounter of God is where I want to be. I love His presence. (There is something else to be said about activity without being plugged in to what God is saying or doing. I am not sure how He “feels” about that.) “Apart from me you can do nothing” he said. Clearly we are all in Him who have accepted Christ as our Lord and Savior, yet I would submit to you that there are times and seasons orchestrated by God that are more powerful than another. There are also times and seasons that are set aside for a place of rest.

To constantly be engaged in the battle reduces our efficiency to be who God calls us to be, which is a child of God. Activity is not necessarily the answer to receiving more of him.

To live on the cutting edge just causes people to bleed. How do I know? I have lived there in my life. Pushing the envelope all the time leaves the people who are family and friends behind. In the dust.

So what do we do?

As I read of the 19 young women who were murdered for the denial of sex to jihadists, there was something inside of me that rose in anger. But as I prayed for the families of these young women, I was caught up to a place where I felt the Lord beckoning me to pray for the terrorists. Obediently, I did.

I appear to reach a lot more people outside of the church than I do in the church. I love my friends in my church family. But in this season God has moved me to the gates, if you will.

How do we reach the jihadist, the sex trafficker? It is one thing to rescue people from their grasp. Absolutely beyond a shadow of a doubt. But what if God is desirous of their captor?

I am okay if you might struggle with that thinking. I know I did and still do. But God has a plan and it is His desire none ought perish.

More meetings? More activity? Even now I saw a picture of a man preparing for a fight. He was doing “finger exercises”. Clearly this fight would not be his. He was active but he was not looking at the big picture. Requiring the preparation of the body. Not a finger or two.

It is time to be serious about what we are to be serious about. If we are serious about the world, because God is, then clearly we may have to update our thinking, our process.

I listened to someone this week telling me all that is wrong. With everything. My serious and well thought out answer was. What can you do here to change there? What can you do in your community to reach people?

It was not designed as a repartee, but a serious question requiring thought on his part. My part.

I love God’s rest. It is there I see His plans. His heart of for the people. It is there, I understand that because I am there, I can do what He has asked of me.

I wrote this on my Facebook page.

Today a man who does not go to church reached out to me. Someone had given him my book.

“I never thought about going to church because people talked about always being perfect. Never being wrong. Never making a mistake. Thank you for this book.”

He did not understand the church because he did not get to know the God. And because our message is often less about God, he did not desire to be connected.

God is real. His people ought to be real as well. Over the years perhaps too much has been swept under the rug as if that would keep God “perfect”.

Let this be day of seeing God. Seeing how He sees us. And walking in the love He has provided.