The Perfecting Church

We are all children of fathers. We are all the offspring of a man. They have sired us, providing the seed that began our existence in this world. But we've been fathered and shaped by our circumstances, decisions and experiences too. Many of our present thoughts, beliefs, values and habits were inherited from these "fathers" leaving us generations later to carry on their lineage. Some of them were God breathed and inspired but others are strongholds that we must learn to identify and breakout from. Knowingly or unknowingly we are all truly children of our fathers.

Strongholds are a region's, culture's or family's way of functioning apart from God. Our lack of dependence on and lack of trust in God inspires these coping techniques that end up blocking our ability to function in Christ. Regions, cultures and families have strongholds unique to themselves. These things are often passed on with those who are passing and those who are receiving being totally unaware of what they are doing. Scripture tells us where we are weak God is strong. God's plan for us is His strength being perfectly made for our weakness. But where human and anti-christ inspired remedies are used-- where we are weak we become weird and stuck. Where strongholds are active in our lives instead of seeing God's image and likeness in us satan is able to say -- "They Get That From Me."

It's the silent devils that end up stealing away our lives. We've spent most of our earthly existence without truly depending on God in a world that celebrates self. We underestimate what being born in sin and shaped in iniquity did to our emotions, intellects, memories, imaginations and wills. When we truly get a glimpse of our fallenness and see how far we were seperated from God, that's when we begin to long for His thoughts, His words and His ways. That longing is the start of a never-ending, new beginning. It's the desire, the longing, the determination for God's thoughts, God's words and God's ways that bring us to a place where we are in this world but we are no longer a product of it. It brings us to a place where we literally breakout!

Listen in on The Perfecting Church's live talk show finale to the summer series Facing Our Giants. Hear how the five faith developers impacted our guest panelists' lives. Gain a deep and personal insight to each of the five faith developers.

When it comes to our faith in God, life's circumstances can effect us in different ways. A difficult experience can cause us to run from God blaming Him for our hurt, tragedy or failure or it can cause us to come to know God in a deep and uwavering way. Even a welcomed and desired event can have varying impact pushing us to our knees in gratitude or into pride and self-dependence. It's not really the event that impacts our faith but our interpretation of the event. The bottom line is we will have pivotal moments in this life. God's desire is that these moments drive us into His arms and deepen our faith not away from Him causing our faith to be weakened.

God uses people. Just because a relationship is not convenient for us and may not seem advantagous to us does not mean it isn't from God. In David's case he knew God had a plan for him. He just had no idea how it would happen. But there are many accounts of God using relationships to accomplish things we never dreamed, planned or imagined. We must remember God has invested in us and in a future for us that is often beyond what we could even think . He uses divine friendships to take us where we wouldn't have gone to become what we couldn't even imagine becoming.

Facing Our Giants is all about how God develops and activates our faith in Him. One thing we see repetitively in the lives of those in scripture is God providentially bringing individuals, couples and even groups into their lives. He does the same with each of us today. Divine friendships may appear random at first glance but through the course of time we look back and see they were divine appointments or divine intersections orchestrated by God. These appointments or intersections come at critical seasons in our faith journey. In some cases they become life-long friendships. In other instances they are just for a critical juncture or point in time. In either case they are divine because we hear and receive from God through these friendships and our course in life is forever changed.

With God there's always more to it than meets the eye. There's always a bigger picture He's working on, a bigger supply He's working from and a bigger role that He's called us to. The disciples could have never imagined they would play such a significant part in establishing the early church. But that's exactly what Jesus was preparing them for the entire time. He was training them to take on more than they were capable of alone. He was training them to depend on Him in a far greater way. He wanted them to learn that little becomes much when little is committed to Him.

The bible is full of accounts where God used people in spite of their limtations and feelings of inadequacy. Jesus was constantly stretching and challenging the faith of His disciples by pushing them into situations that seemed impossible. God still thrusts us into situations where we feel unprepared, incapable and even afraid. But the day must come for all of us when we say I'll go. At some point we all have to say I'll do it. Playing it safe, giving into fear and remaining enslaved to our circumstances stunts the development of our faith in God. Being Christ's body means going beyond the boundaries of our ability and into His all sufficiency. It's when we make what we have available to God, giving Him all we've got, that our faith in God grows in ways unimagined. We must become the help!

Spending time alone with God is about restoring our faith in our Father. As we dilligently and regularly spend time with Him His influence on our lives transforms us. We see giants as something to great to be overcome because we don't know our Father. David was the only man in 1Samuel 17 that didn't see Goliath as a giant. He saw him as an obstacle to the Father's will for their lives. In Numbers 13 ten men saw giants but Joshua and Caleb saw God as greater than anything that opposed them. Their time alone with God had convinced them He was trustworthy and capable of keeping His promises no matter what they faced. Our alone time with God will do the same thing in us. What others saw as impossible they saw as possible because spending time alone with God develops a faith in Him that overcomes giants.

We could create a long list of things that might be useful in helping us to develop our faith in God. But we would be hard pressed to create any list that didn't have spending time alone with Him right at the top. More than anything Jesus' life was characterized by the time He spent alone with His Father. Although He left His Father physically and there were 3 heavens seperating them, Jesus never spent a moment away from Him. Jesus' life was so radically influenced by His time alone with the Father that He is recorded in the bible saying, "if you've seen me you've seen the Father." Our first reaction upon hearing that is probably, well that was Jesus. But how can we honestly call ourselves disciples, followers of Jesus and excuse ourselves from this life defining truth about Him? Jesus spent time alone with God.

Communion Service: Carriers of Reconciliation

If we're ever going to face and overcome our giants, the obstacles, challenges and issues that keep us from where we've been pre-ordained to be, we must develop faith in God. At it's core faith is really trust. It's a relentless and unshakeable trust. Some say faith is blind. But faith is not blind. It sees the same things everyone else sees. But it also sees what others don't. That kind of faith is the result of spending time alone with God. Faith comes from hearing God's words and in order to hear God's words and develop faith in them at some point we must begin spending regular alone time with Him.

A Funeral and a wedding are the perfect imagery for today. As we end our second year we look back and reflect upon all the good God has done in our lives, in our gatherings as His church and in the communities where we live. We also forgive and leave behind the mistakes and difficulties we've experienced. A funeral and a wedding are the perfect imagery because today also marks a new beginning. The end of one season and the start of another. As we begin our third year together we do it with our hands locked one with another and with Christ. We have reason to be full of excitement as we look at all the good God has done and recognize more clearly what He can and will do in and through us. So today we reflect as year two ends and we excitedly look forward as year three begins. It's a funeral and a wedding.

One way or another, for good or for bad our giants end up defining us. Giants are the obstacles, challenges and issues that stand between where we are and where we are pre-ordained to be. We all know people who have been defined by their giant. When we mention their names unfortunately we no longer think about them we think about the obstacle, challenge or issue that overtook them. We also know the David's -- giant killers. People who saw themselves through the eyes of faith conquering their giant. The difference between the giant victims and the giant killers is faith. More than anything we need to get a grasp of what causes our faith to grow so we can face our giants.