Old Friends and New Wine

One of the benefits of having not moved immediately after our transition in ministry is we run into people we know on a regular basis.  These encounters are helping us move through this season of life in ways which continues to mold and shape us. Some of these encounters are used by God to encourage our souls, others are used to help reveal the true state of our hearts.  Both are blessings.  We have noticed over time when God brings the same person across our path multiple times in a very short period of time; we ought to take notice of how He might be using them in our lives to teach us something.

The other day, my wife ran into an old friend we have known since college.  Even though we live in the same town, because our lives make their orbits in different universes, we can go years without seeing one another.  This was the second time in a matter of days they crossed paths.  This triggers the question in us, “God, what are you doing here?”

Now before I go any farther, let me say a few words about our friend, and in particular about how God speaks to her and what He allows her to see.  Right after we got married her and her husband came over for dinner.  We had known each other for several years by then and her husband had been my roommate in college. I would have said I knew her pretty well, but apparently it was not as well as I thought.  She opened up to us that night about the ways in which God speaks to her and how He has given her a gift of discernment which allows her to see spiritual realities others cannot see.  She then shared some very specific examples which honestly kind of freaked me out.

I wish I could say I took it all on faith, but my narrow Baptist mind and my limited exposure to how God works throughout the world made me much more dismissive than I care to admit.  This attitude prevailed until years later, after several missions trips and a bit of growing up, I found myself in a conversation with another woman who was sharing very similar experiences about the same events and places my friend had told me about.  I pressed into this second conversation with questions, forming them out of my knowledge of what our friend had shared years ago, and I was blown away with how these two women, who did not know one another, had seen and experienced the same things.

I share all this simply to say, when the friend who my wife ran into says she sees or senses something I have learned to pay attention.

Knowing the transition we find ourselves in, this friend was kind enough to ask how I was doing.

My wife told her I was teaching quarter time at Biola University.  I teach a class on how God forms us spiritually in community.  Sometimes I think I am getting more out of the experience than my students. It is reawakening me to what we are to be to one another as people who follow Jesus. 

She also told her about the people I am meeting with for mentorship, discipleship and spiritual direction.  The sad reality is I am having more, both in number and significance, spiritual conversations with people than working as a pastor ever afforded me to have. 

The last thing my wife shared was we are still waiting and looking for what God has next. We have been listening for God's direction and what we have heard is, "Wait, it is not ready yet." Our friend commented, "You are not alone."  She is right, we know of a number of people who God seems to be pulling out of ministry in the church for one reason or another, preparing them for something new, and who are waiting for God to reveal what comes next.  My wife noted to our friend, "God must be up to something,"  That is when this lady, who God seems to have given a gift of discernment, shared "I think revival is coming". 

Revival is an awakening from dormancy or stagnation in the life of a follower of Jesus or the church.  It embodies a spirit of humility, repentance and desire for holiness.  It is a returning to our first love.  It breaks the hold the patterns of the world have upon us.  It is a new beginning of a life lived in the obedience and freedom, which comes from embracing the abundant life we have been given.

Coincidentally, this week I had a guest speaker in my class at Talbot. He is a pastor, professor, and author who has written and taught extensively about how the church is supposed to function as a family.  I always appreciate when he comes into class because he challenges me on how I think about the church.  This week he shared with great conviction the church is a family, not a business.  It is an organism, not an organization.  He then backed up his perspective with scripture, historical evidence, and personal stories. This both inspires the students and makes the class feel uncomfortable.  Our hearts know what he says is true, but it is not always our experience.

The sad fact is, many of our churches do not seem to understand what he is talking about.  They operate more like a business than a family.  However, I think an ever increasing number of leaders do.  These are the ones God is calling out of the organization in order to give birth to something new.

It is not because they are special; it is simply because they have spent enough time doing church as business they recognize it does not give birth to the life God has intended for us or the kind of transformation into Christ-likeness that is possible.  This realization has given birth to a discontent with the status quo and a longing to see the Kingdom of God manifested in the people of God in ways no business or organizations can engender. 

These leaders have held these desires internally for so long they are now seeping out into their external world.  I do not have the time, or space, to tell you all the stores I have heard or leaders I have talked to who have willingly stepped out of their position in the church, because they know God is calling them to something far greater than maintaining an organization, or who are being moved out of their churches because they are unwilling to continue to build a business rather than the Kingdom.  When you talk to these followers of Jesus, what is often shared is they do not yet know what God is calling them to, they only know they are to be obedient to let go of what they have known in order to make space for what is coming.  

According to my friend, what is coming is revival. Be looking for it, pray for it, prepare yourselves for it, but in the meantime, "Wait, it is not ready yet."

Wait for the Lord;
Be strong and let your heart take courage;
Yes, wait for the Lord. – Psalm 27:14

This is what the Lord says:

“Stand at the crossroads and look;
    ask for the ancient paths,
ask where the good way is, and walk in it,
    and you will find rest for your souls. - Jeremiah 6:16

No one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost and the skins as well; but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins. - Mark 2:22

You have perseverance and have endured for My name’s sake, and have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Therefore remember from where you have fallen... - Revelation 2:3-5

The hand of the Lord was upon me, and He brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley; and it was full of bones. He caused me to pass among them round about, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley; and lo, they were very dry. He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord God, You know.” Again He said to me, “Prophesy over these bones and say to them, ‘O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.’ Thus says the Lord God to these bones, ‘Behold, I will cause breath to enter you that you may come to life. - Ezekiel 37:1-5