I would love to write gone are the days of drinking in the rivers of God and dying on Monday….

I would love to write gone are the days of drinking in the rivers of God and dying on Monday…. I would love to write that in experiencing all that we did through the different movements we were catapulted forward towards love and unity and an expression of the Father and of Christ and of Holy Spirit that we became that which we were always intentioned to become… I would love to write that we took the best of that which we were exposed to and moved forward holding onto one another and linking arms and growing into maturity so that all would grow up into the headship of Christ….

I would love to write that… I would love to walk in that… I would love to see that…

I would love to see a celebrity driven culture not find its way into the doors of our worship halls…. I would love to see the understanding that those that walk before us aren’t there to glean forth the trophies of their prizes… even those who personally don’t seek them are prone to congregations who are too happy to give it all to them…..

There is nothing new under the sun in that regard… Moses being told to go it alone… go and come back and we will get the stuff from you…. Israel wanting a king that would take and take and take but caring not within the understanding being spelled out for them they still cried for someone to go before and get the stuff and bring it to them…..

This will not suffice where we need to go….. this mentality will be death….

We have this culture that has allowed the thought to be the exact opposite of what we read in Ephesians 4. We have a culture that says the body exists for the marquee player of the hour…. That we celebrate them and their anointing and journey from speaker to speaker …. But you see I am so hungry to see that which it speaks of within the Ephesians 4 passage… where it talks about those that are given gifts are to use them to equip the saints…. For the building up of the body so that we can reach unity in the faith… so that we can mature … so that we may “no longer be children tossed to and from by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine…”

Rather we are to be those that “speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.”
Over a decade ago I was learning about how much God truly loved His people… He was talking to me and sharing His heart with me and I was growing daily… then I heard of this man and this tape series and I got it..

When it arrived I couldn’t wait to listen to it … I couldn’t wait to hear what this man who had walked ahead of me on all these issues had to say…. (and I’m not saying that there aren’t those we should follow and learn from but I want you to hear me on this.. it goes into the matters of the heart…) I knew the Lord told me not to listen to it… that He was teaching me and I was to put those tapes (I know I date myself) aside….

But I couldn’t believe that I was hearing all that I needed… I wouldn’t believe that there wasn’t something more in those tapes then that which I was hearing for myself…. Well… in that case there wasn’t and sadly the consequences were the Lord didn’t instruct me personally like that for a good long season….

Anyone who walks ahead of us does so in order that we (the body) may be equipped…. But even in that there isn’t anything that the Lord speaks to one that He won’t speak to any……

I remember having lunch with a well known prophetic voice… but the incredible lesson the Lord taught me at the lunch was not how well that person heard from Him… I left that lunch having enjoyed the richness of the fellowship because there wasn’t anything that was shared that I hadn’t already heard from the Father myself….. but hearing it shared I just felt so confirmed that all can hear and all are being spoken to

The reality is we have a King… we don’t need a king…. We have a Kingdom … we don’t need to build mini ones … There is a name that should be lifted up that all men would be drawn unto if we actually did that but instead we are satisfied to lift up the names of men and women …. And the culture of the conference attendee and the professional church goers is alive and thriving….

Those that have gone before are called to equip not paralyze nor make disciples of Paul or Apollos or fill in the blank… we are called to make disciples of Christ…. And those that have gone before or are going before are called to be mothers and fathers that grow people up to walk upon their own feet and find their own voice not cut feet out from the very ones that they have raised up and taught to walk or stifle the very voices that they taught how to speak…….. but I have seen that time and time again…


We all need to get the message of Ephesians 4…. Urging like Paul did…


“urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love,3eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. 7But grace was givento each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. “