Missing Molly

Well, this week Molly is in Arkansas with her family while I am working a few days before driving down to meet her and spend Memorial Day weekend with her family! I've been revisiting many of these verses that remind me of the blessing she is to my life!

He who finds a wife finds what is good and receives favor from the Lord. - Proverbs 18

Wives, in the same way submit yourselves to your own husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives, when they see the purity and reverence of your lives. Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight. For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to adorn themselves.  - 1 Peter 3

Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers. - 1 Peter 3

As I read these verses, and spend more time as a married man, I notice a little more of God's glorious design for marriage. Marriage is built in to God's design for our existence! God said from the beginning that man was never meant to be alone (Gen 2:18), so God created woman to complete His grand design (and spruce up the place). Without woman, man was incomplete, even in paradise.

Thus, the Lord tied special blessings to marriage, other than sex, that unlock new facets of our identity and calling before the Lord. Marriage isn't only about personal happiness, although a marriage submitted to the leadership of Jesus will result in personal happiness. There are special attributes of our calling and relationship with God that are only unlocked through the experience of marriage. This is the favor of the Lord mentioned in Proverbs 18.

Why else would God make our prayers dependent on such an intricate and intimate relationship? Peter's address in 1 Peter 3 was not just to husbands and wives because the actual Greek words are intended for men and women of marriageable age, whether married or not. Peter is not just giving an address to married couples, he is giving a generation an invitation... He is describing the inter-dependent relationship of marriage and defining who we are called to be. 

Marriage is a glorious design. It reveals the nature of God in a very unique way so much so that Peter says that if men neglect it then our prayers aren't the same! I see this in my own life! I have never felt nearer to the Lord or more encouraged in my calling than in the days since I married Molly. And even now with just a few days apart, I feel the difference she makes in my life. I am so thankful for her!

God's 'Avengers' (The Nazirites Are Coming)

I, like most of America, just saw the Avengers movie that has been a big hit in the theaters worldwide. In fact the Avengers set record sales for both opening weekend and its second weekend, previously set by Avatar in 2009. There has been great interest in the theme of the Avenger heroes, a group of unlikely people who unite in a time of crisis and then disappear again after the crisis has ended. After seeing this movie I recognized a clear parallel between this story and a Bible story that has great application to today!

God has a group of Avengers called Nazirites. The Nazirites were a group of people found in the Old Testament called by God only in times of extreme crisis. In fact, some Nazirites even had forms of superpowers, such as Samson (Judges 13) and many of the major prophets in the Old Testament who performed great signs and wonders. The purpose of the Nazirites was not about superpowers, however, it was about the message they carried. These were messengers that God raised up in times of crisis to turn the nation of Israel back to the Lord.

You can find the Nazirite Vow defined in Numbers 6, "If a man or woman wants to make a special vow, a vow of dedication to the Lord as a Nazirite. . . Throughout the period of their dedication, they are consecrated to the Lord." There were three distinctions to this vow: those dedicated could not cut their hair, not eat or drink anything related to grapes, and they could not be around death. So whenever you look throughout scripture and see the prophets who dedicated themselves in this way, they are referring to the Nazirite Vow (Samuel, Elijah/Elisha, John the Baptist, etc...).

Scripture also makes it clear that the Lord called Nazirites from the youth of the nation in Amos 2: "I also raised up prophets from among your children and Nazirites from among your youths." The scary part of Amos 2 is that the Lord was preparing to crush Israel for rejecting the Nazirites that the Lord had called! 

When Israel was in crisis, the Lord called a special group of people out of the youth of the nation to a high calling of consecration and holiness. This was not a calling of consecration from sin, but to abstain even from permissible pleasures in order to pursue the Lord in a dedicated way. These Nazirites became symbols, icons in a generation of the message they carried, the message of repentance. And these Nazirites were the Lord's anointed messengers with power on their words and their actions, endorsed by heaven.

While the literal Nazirite Vow no longer exists in the New Testament and present day, the principle of the Vow endures through all generations. Even today the Lord is calling a group of people out of the youth of America to radical consecration and to carry a message. 

Right now our nation is the crisis of impending judgement from the Lord for our iniquities. I remember 6 years ago I sat at an Acquire the Fire conference and listened as Ron Luce declared clearly the urgency of the hour, calling hundreds of thousands of youth to be messengers in their generation. 6 years ago, Ron Luce declared the statistics that exposed the destructive trends of our nation's youth culture, warning the church of what would happen if we failed to respond. Now the youth documented in those statistics are of voting age, and the polls taken of the young voters are revealing devastating moral decline. Since then Ron Luce has traveled the nation repenting on behalf of the previous generation that failed to act in the youth's time of need. That was the first time I had ever heard of this call from the Lord to be a messenger in my generation.

Since then I have seen clearly how the Lord is calling modern day Nazirites to arise. It's not about growing long hair or not eating grapes or going around cemeteries. It's about standing for truth in a day when truth is slain in the streets like in Isaiah 59. The Lord is calling out of the youth of America a group of radically devoted prayer warriors who carry a message burning in their bones like Jeremiah. We have a window of mercy to respond to this call from the Lord as He gives us every opportunity to turn back to him. The Lord is raising up musicians and artists out of the youth of America who carry the message of the cross and who refuse to bow their talents to the gods of this age or the praises of man. The Lord is raising up students who are committed to praying every morning at their school for revival, teenagers that defeat darkness as they prepare the way for an open heaven over their school.

There is a new breed of American teenager emerging who the Lord has put his hand on as they return to Christianity's ancient paths (Jeremiah 6:16), the paths of the Nazirite messengers. They don't care about being "cool" or going with the flow. They care only about the fire in the eyes of their Lord as they gaze upon his beauty and share his jealousy for their generation. Their message will go out to the entire generation, and it starts with the church! Return to the Lord.

Suddenly are they called forth to define the next phase of human history. How will you respond?

Thinking About Music

I've been thinking recently about what motivates my interest in music and musicianship. I have to admit that my journey as a musician has been very long one. I started when I was 12 years old and I've played off and on until I joined IHOP where I really started playing regularly 5 years ago. I'm not all that skilled, although sometimes I surprise myself, there are a lot of musicians at IHOP that blow my mind.

I've been thinking about what motivates my music. Why do I even play guitar at all? What is the purpose behind it? It wasn't until I joined IHOP and met Seth Yates that I heard of Biblical prophetic musicianship or anointed music. I didn't even have a grid for the false worship movements of the earth. In fact I thought I was doing God a favor by using my special musical talent to worship him. I thought music was music for music's own sake. Now I realize that couldn't be further from the truth.

My motivation for music has been wrecked ever since I discovered the passage in Scripture related to God's purpose for prophetic musicianship. I can't settle for music for music's sake anymore. No amount of skill is enough for me. I am only interested in music that moves the heavens, touches God's heart and sets people free. So much of today's music is self-centered, God-hating and enslaving! But Scripture speaks of music that literally changes the spiritual atmosphere over a region, music that dispatches angels into battle and that no demon can stand against. Who would have thought music could do that? God did.

Scripture makes this so clear through the lives of many musicians such as David, Elisha and the Levites. David's music drove demons away from Saul. Elisha needed the music of an anointed musician to receive a prophetic word, and the Levites played their instruments on the front lines of battle while thousands were slain by angels at the sound of their music. WHAT IS THAT?! What kind of music is that?! Psalm 149 speaks of the church having the praises of God on their lips and a two-edged sword in their hand to execute judgement on the nations! Isaiah 30 says that every judgement that is released against the Antichrist in Revelation is actually to the sound of the church's music! How could the defeat of the Antichrist and our music be related?!

We have so little understanding of our calling as worshipers, or of God's intention for music. Suddenly skill level doesn't matter at all and all that matters is heart-posture before the Lord. God designed the power of music to be accessible not to those who have the skill, but to those who have the hunger. I'm wrecked. As a musician, I care about skill only so that I can express what I feel in my spirit (and cooperate with a team). All the skill in the world means nothing without the right heart-posture.

So, honestly, what motivates my music? Skill doesn't, and maybe that's bad because I don't practice enough. But I have a vision and a calling for something greater than skilled musicianship - to drive out darkness with a single note. I honestly don't care that much about how fast my fingers are or how well I understand music theory, although those things do have their place and importance. I can't be satisfied by any music that doesn't encounter God's heart. I just can't.

So, that's what I'm thinking about music right now. I'm a mess until I have all that God will give me as a musician. This is my public statement of my ache to play music that brings heaven and earth together, to encounter God's heart every time I pick up a guitar, and to commit my musicianship to music that sets people free.