October 2002
Page 1 - A Sword for the Lord August 7th - 10th, 2002
Page 2 - A War, A Lord, and An Outrageous Army by Dr. Greg Boyd
Page 3 - The Alliance of Renewal Churches (ARC)
Page 4 - Mid Year Equipping Conference
A Sword for the Lord
August 7th-10th, 2002Overflow crowds jammed into the sanctuary of North Heights Lutheran Church in Arden Hills, Minnesota for the 31st annual Holy Spirit Conference, only to find that it was not a conference.
The worship, led by the music team from Brooklyn Park Lutheran, was impassioned. The teaching, both from local pastors and international ministry leaders, imparted vision and inspired hope. The personal ministry time, where God's people experienced the Father's touch, brought healing and peace.
Even so, in the end, this was not a conference.
It was not a seminar, nor a series of workshops.
It was an encounter with the One whose love is rich in transforming power. It was a cleansing and a call to God-honoring holiness in our lives. It was a confirmation of kingdom destiny for each saint of God, where our imaginations were tantalized with the question, "What would happen if we started running with His strength?"
Encounter: Knowing God, Having His Heart
The theme of the four-day gathering was taken from the story of Gideon in the book of Judges: "A Sword for the Lord." While a sword-crafting it, possessing it, wielding it-brings to mind images of brigands, battle, and bloodshed, author and pastor Francis Frangipane reminded pastors that David, when fleeing Saul, forgot his sword but remembered his harp. This serves as a reminder to us that though we are thrust into a cosmic conflict where the stakes of each sword stroke are eternal, the preparation of the Lord's army begins with praise and worship.There is no substitute for being in the presence of God and magnifying Him with praise and worship flowing from the depth of our being. This is so, explained Rick Joyner of MorningStar Ministries, because personal relationship with the Alpha and Omega is key for understanding His purposes and possessing His heart. He told us that the best way to know someone is by their voice and face; this is true for friendships on earth, and it is especially true for our friendship with God. We must be with Him, spend time with Him daily, in order to hear the quiet whisper of His voice.
Accordingly, Joyner issued a warning against pursuing God because of what He can do for us or what He can give us. "You never know someone by their hand," Joyner remarked, "so why does the body of Christ try to know the Lord simply by His hand?"
Cleansing: a Call to Personal Holiness
A Sword for the Lord embraced this divine demand on our lives by directing the gathered congregation to the life-giving waters of repentance and forgiveness. Dr. Mark Herringshaw, Vision of Glory Lutheran Church (Plymouth, MN), sounded the trumpet to demolish the idols in our own backyards.Gideon serves as our example. When called by God to a destiny greater than he could imagine, his first assignment is to destroy his father's altar and to construct a holy altar to God (Judges 6:25-26). Like Gideon, we who would be used by God have to tear down what opposes God in our own hearts, minds, and lives. For the King of Kings to have full access to us we must do this with uncompromising tenacity. "We must become violent," counseled Mark, "against the idols that would kill our passion for God."
Spiritual cleansing, rather being a joyless exercise laced with guilt and shame, offers believers a chance to lean into the favor of God. In our times of repentance during A Sword for the Lord, this emphasis led us to the unsurpassed goodness of God, who is quick to forgive and to revitalize us with His own life. For it is God's very life within us that unleashes the power of the destiny we've been given, so that we can move naturally to the rhythms of grace and easily into the fullness of what God has called us to.
As Frangipane noted, "Nothing pleases the Father more than to see Christ breaking forth from us, His church. Awaken the Father's pleasure and it will release His power." Little we do will touch the Father's heart like repentance, the cry of the human heart that says, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me, a sinner!" And little we do will spark an outpouring of God's power through our lives like the humility of being conformed to the image of Christ.
Of course, we have a say in the matter.
We can agree with God. We can also dispute with God, drag our feet, try to hide, and run the other way. Lutheran Renewal's Director, Paul Anderson, noted that the latter was Israel's approach during the period of the judges, endemically finding herself in a rhythm of disobedience, discipline, and deliverance. "Because God loves us," Anderson said, "God loves us with discipline." Just as God loved Israel too much to let her get away with her disobedience, so God loves His Son's friends too much to leave us to our own sinful devices.
Confirmation: Every Christian has a Kingdom Destiny
For all who worry that their personal shortcomings and disobedience have disqualified them from a part in God's grand kingdom adventure, A Sword for the Lord gave great encouragement and cast a vision for each believer's vital role in the unfolding of God's purposes.Todd Wallace, Pastor of Brooklyn Park Lutheran Church, urged us in this matter to consider Gideon. "When God's call came to him," said Todd, "Gideon wasn't praying or reading his Bible; he was enmeshed in the darkness of his culture. " Gideon had not done anything to merit God's choosing of him, nor qualified at some super-high spiritual level that few people in history ever reach. He was just a lucky joe who found himself the object of God's prevailing, mysterious favor.
Totally random from our point of view, perfectly sensible from God's.
And if we feel like we have very little going for us, it turns out that this makes us ideal candidates for God's favor, just like Gideon. Todd pointed out that Gideon lived in a fallen nation, was from an insignificant tribe, belonged to an insignificant clan, and was one of the lowliest members of his own family. Moreover, when God came to confirm Gideon in his prophetic destiny, he found him in a stupid place, as Todd put it. Gideon was hiding in a glorified hole in the ground, a submerged winepress, but this does not seem to have bothered God. Far from it; this is foolishness fodder, exactly the stuff God loves to shape for His eternal pleasure.
As A Sword for the Lord drew to a close, we were left to answer one final question: how are we to move forward in our kingdom destiny?
Greg Boyd, author and pastor of Woodland Hills Church in St. Paul, delivered the answer in a single word: love. Jesus trusted the wisdom of God and used love to outwit and conquer evil. This is to be our plan of attack as well. "This is a different kind of strategy," Boyd declared, "using a weapon that Satan cannot resist because he cannot understand it."
Love is incomprehensible to the enemy of our souls, and it is the custom-crafted sword we've been given. This is the weapon that brings down strongholds. "There's a constant pull from the world to fight like the world fights, a flesh and blood battle," Boyd said, adding emphatically, "No! We are to overcome evil with good. It is a mistake to give flesh and blood expression to our warfare convictions."
This, then, is the nature of people who have had an encounter with God and who, as a result of His spiritual cleansing are becoming more like Christ: we win the spiritual battle and walk out our destiny through outrageous, sacrificial love.
Encounter, Cleansing, Confirmation: Why They Matter
Encounter expresses the Father's desire for fiery intimacy, where the flames of His presence and glory stoke the furnace of our love for God. Cleansing speaks to the reality of our sinfulness and our radical need for the grace of forgiveness. Confirmation authenticates God's plan to advance His kingdom through His people, as flawed and inadequate as we may be, so that His strength may be displayed through our frailty and His love flow from our submission to Him.These three things-encounter, cleansing, confirmation-are God's trademarks. They certainly are not ours. We'd rather run from God than to Him, wallow in sin, and do our own thing instead of live out a kingdom destiny.
How marvelous it is, then, in this recounting of A Sword for the Lord, that we are able to say with Joel (2:21), "Be glad and rejoice. Surely the Lord has done great things!"
Graeme Sellers is the Senior Pastor at Nativity Lutheran in Gilbert, AZ. He is also on the Leadership Team of the Alliance of Renewal Churches (ARC).
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