From Masquerade to Magnified... 20 years in the making.. 20 years to only confirm what I had already believed

I grew up loving musical theater.

I was so very fortunate to have parents who had means and similar passion. I sat in many a Broadway theater. I watched many a star sing and dance and entertain.

This morning the lyrics to Masquerade from Phantom of the Opera, played within my memories. The words to it. The reality of it. The masks we all wear. The reality we all try to hide. The way we morph ourselves.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwoLNtUuCVk

 I had been spending some time in prayer and started weeping. After my remembrances would be turned towards Broadway, they would then be fixed upon an old vineyard song that has found its way into my life within many a season.

Fred Hammond's song, Be Magnified, crossed its way through my lips and is what left me in tears upon my bed. Reaching out towards the Lord as words of intercession mixed with the words of the song, I began to weep. How many times had I lifted my voice with these words and come back to the place where it is not upon men and the ways of men and modern ministry that the Kingdom of God flourishes.

Be Magnified..... 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpPTjHpIIOw

I come back time and time again to the scenes of Jesus cleansing the temple, of Jesus chastising the Pharisees, of our Father yearning to be our God and King and not share that place with another. His desire that we would walk in patience, walk in trust, walk in humility. His hunger that we would believe He has the very best for us in mind. That I would not lift my heart, soul, hand to any other idol.. any other god. That I would not believe in the mechanisms and tactics of the day over the power of the Holy Spirit.

I do not desire to throw the baby out with the bathwater...

I will grant that the Lord gives men strategies to advance His purposes upon the earth..

But I will say this....

His strategies are utterly delightful..

His strategies are stunning and brilliant and other worldly

His strategies DO NOT come formulated within lists of 5 ways for that and 10 ways for this..

His strategies speak of worship bringing walls down.

His strategies pit 300 Gideon warriors against nation.

His strategies are formed by 120 people waiting in upper room before 1000s are added to their number

His strategies aren't formulaic

His strategies contain within their make up that which fascinates me and that which I desire to know and that which I crave the courage to wait for and to walk within.

His strategies …

I believe in the power of the Holy Spirit .. not just to give charismatics and Pentecostals an evening out or an event within a conference.. I believe in the reality that the presence of God truly affects all things. I believe that Obed Edom was blessed when presence of the Lord was within His household. I believe that the spirit caused fetuses within the womb's of our Lord's mother's cousin to leap. I believe it was the Spirit and the reality of our Father and our Kingdom of Heaven that went before His people time and time and time again....

I understand that old story told about a man and a flood and a boat being sent, a helicopter being sent.. etc... etc... etc... It isn't that I don't believe that the Lord uses all things. The Earth is the Lord's and all that is within.... Too many times however from where I have stood and from what I have seen the men aren't waiting for the boat or the helicopter.... they are building them in their own likenesses and in their own ways...

I must say that for where I find myself in life and in faith and after decades of ministry, my stance must be one that I would rather wait upon the Lord then build in vanity. Unless the Lord builds the house we labor in vain. There is much vanity. There are many tables that would once again be over turned by our Lord walking within our temples. The schemes and strategies of men are so small regardless of what they achieve. It is said we gain the whole world and yet lose our souls. It is written that there will be upon that grand day the sorrowful confession of those that worked within the house of the Lord doing the “works” of God and yet never stopping to be known by Him nor truly know Him.

That truth... Those written words should be the impetus that bring us to our knees and compel us to remove the masks and cease the masquerade...

I have made Him way too small in my eyes....

Oh dearest Lord

Please … Please forgive me

I have made You too small in my eyes

Oh Lord, forgive me

And I have believed in a lie
That You are unable to help me.
But now, Oh Lord, I see my wrong
Heal my heart and show Yourself strong
And in my eyes and with my song
Oh Lord, be magnified 

Chorus:
Be magnified, Oh Lord
You are highly exalted
And there is nothing You can't do
Oh Lord, my eyes are on You
Be magnified,
Oh Lord, be magnified

Verse 2
I have leaned on a wisdom of men
Oh Lord, forgive me
And I have responded to them
Instead of Your light and Your mercy
But now, Oh Lord, I see my wrong
Heal my heart and show yourself strong
And in my eyes and in my song
Oh Lord be magnified