CWOC the Blog

Hebrews 4:12 – "…the Word of God is quick (alive), powerful (at work), and sharper than any two-edged sword…."

The phrase "two-edged" in the original language (which is Greek) is made up of two words: (1) ‘dis’ – meaning ‘twice, again’ and (2) ’stoma’ – meaning ‘mouth or the edge of a weapon.’ Looking at the original meanings here, we could translate this phrase as "two-mouthed" or "mouthed-again".

Think about this. God delivers His Word from Himself into our hearts. That is one mouth (God’s). He has delivered it / spoken it into our hearts. It is a Word ‘for’ us. It is HIS Word deposited into us. When it enters us, it becomes OUR Word – given to us.

Thus far only ONE mouth has been involved in releasing this Word.

Until the second mouth becomes involved this Word is not activated. The second mouth is OURS. When we open our mouths and declare the Word of the Lord we activate it in the earth. We release it, by faith, into the atmosphere and render it back to the Lord. Isaiah 55:11 comes into effect – His Word cannot return to Him void and brings breakthrough into where He sends it.

Are you activating the Word of God by declaring it – making it known (Ephesians 3:10)?

Or, are you being a quaint American Christian and hoarding it into yourself; thereby, making it inactive and ineffective?

Have you been to Wal-Mart or Lowes and seen the display of pre-paid gift cards? They are loaded with potential, but are no good until they are activated. The Word of God is like that: loaded with potential – waiting to be activated. Our faith and our declaration (giving it the second mouth) is what activates it in the earth.

Let’s get with the Kingdom program.

For a deeper teaching on this you can order a CD or DVD from Crossroads World Outreach Center – date: 4/14/10. Website: www.cwoconline.org.

There was a time when Jesus was entering into Jerusalem and He "wept" over the city. I believe He wept because the people of the city were missing their opportunity: HIM.

Do you think maybe God’s heart still hurts over such missed opportunities in the realms of mankind? I think so.

Personally, I know there have been times that I "missed" moments through doubt, fear, or sin. But, I’ve never "missed" God. It was always later that He, in His loving, gracious, and merciful way, convicted me and brought me back close to His heart.

This isn’t a walk of perfection. It is a walk of learning. We NEVER experience ultimate failure unless we abandon God for something else.

Jerusalem abandoned Jesus for religion. He didn’t fit the mold of what they were looking for in a "Messiah".

Are there any areas of your life where God looks and it saddens His heart? If there are, let Him help you. If you are not allowing Him Lordship over every area of your life then you have de-throned the King of Glory in your soul.

A de-throned Lord is as bad as a crucified Lord.

May we be a people who never again saddens His heart, but, on the contrary, brings a smile to His face at His very thought of us.

The greatest opportunity you and I will ever have will not be love, fun, career, success or anything this world affords. Those are good things and not bad in themselves. Yet, they are not the greatest opportunity. The greatest opportunity is HIM. In Christ alone….

Today, I started a series of messages on “Don’t Live A Bug’s Life” (which I will break from on Easter Sunday).

In Numbers chapter 13, the children of Israel had recently been miraculously delivered from 400 years of Egyptian slavery. They sent out 12 spies for 40 days to check out the “Promised Land” that God was prepared to send them into. When these guys returned they were carrying a “cluster” of grapes that was so huge it took two of them to carry it – draped over a staff. They exclaimed, “It’s just like we were told. The Land is amazing. It has plenty and LOOK at this stuff we brought back.”

In Numbers 13:28, things take a downward spiral. 10 of these twelve began to lament, “BUT… the cities are large, impregnable, and with huge walls. Not only that – THERE ARE GIANTS IN THE LAND.” At that point, all of the 2.5 – 3 million people began to FREAK OUT! They started screaming, “We should have stayed in Egypt. Yes, we were slaves, but it would be better to die there than out here in this wilderness.” So on and so on. WRONG ANSWER!

A pivotal statement by those 10 negative, fearful, pessimistic, doubting losers was this: “We see ourselves as grasshoppers before those people and that is how they see us” (Numbers 13:33 – Tim Hodge Paraphrase).

What do you see yourself as in life? Do you feel inferior and insignificant? If so, you need to CHANGE your mindset. You need a serious, Bible-centered PARADIGM SHIFT!

The two other guys, Joshua and Caleb, were bold men of faith. There response to this mindset is found in Numbers 14:8,9 – “If God is on our side…these people will be bread to us!” In other words, “You be a grasshopper if you want! But, we are GIANT-EATING GRASSHOPPERS!”

Here are my recap points from the first message:

1. See is NOT believing. What you HEAR is what breeds faith (or fear). Romans 10:17 – FAITH comes by hearing and hearing by the WORD of God. Yet, if you allow the wrong sources into your life, those sources will breed fear (as with those words of the 10 men causing nation-wide panic).

2. The kingdom of darkness has propagated a LIE to the church: “You are in the earth to GET BY. You nothing more than BUGS!” The truth is, God has His church in the earth to TAKE OVER and make His enemies His footstool (Psalms 110:1).

3. God made us exquisite works of art – WITH A PURPOSE! KNOW WHO YOU ARE (Jeremiah 1:5; Jeremiah 29:11; Psalms 139).

4. We are not here to FIND the will of God. His WORD is His will! He wrote it for us. We are here to MAKE KNOWN / DECLARE the will of God. You will EAT your words (Ephesians 3:8-10; Numbers 14:28; Proverbs 13:2).

Come on friends, don’t life a BUG’S LIFE!

Just a few weeks ago I wrote a BLOG entitled “WHO Is Your Motivation?”. In it, I attempted to deal with the issues of “WHY” we do what we do in life (and especially in our spiritual walk). Are we out to please MAN or are we moving to please GOD?

Let me tell you something I have learned in my 26 years of this walk of faith (and almost 20 in full-time ministry): Either we will preach, teach, or write from our experience / OR / we experience what we preach, teach, or write.

When I wrote that blog a few weeks ago, I felt in my heart I had all that under control. I wasn’t doing what I do to please man. I am God’s man. Well, it was a SETUP. LOL. Yes, that’s right, I was set up. I was tested on what I wrote.

I posted the previously mentioned BLOG about three weeks ago. A week later this “spirit of fear” started messing with my mind. I had ridiculous garbage bombarding my thoughts. This was so typically OUT OF THE BLUE and so UNtypical of my normal mode of thought. I had intimidating, mental verbiages threatening me: “Don’t rock the boat – you have a good thing going on here. Don’t do something too far out there. Don’t do anything too radical or extreme.”

And then, IT happened. The Holy Spirit began doing some radical surgery in my inner man. After several days of this work marinating in my soul and spirit, I sensed the Holy Spirit dealing with me to share this word with Crossroads (where I am the Senior Pastor) and with the body of Christ at large in America.

Here is the problem. This was a very HARD word. It was a call to repentance. It was a call to “anguish” over the sins in our land. It was a call to accountability in the body of Christ for our lackadaisical attitude for the shape of our nation. It was a “WAKE UP CALL” from Heaven. Personally, it came out of three hours of delving into Psalms 51 and followed by days of prayer, weeping, repentance, and crying out to the heart of God.

Now, you may say, “I don’t see a problem with that Pastor Tim.” Okay. Let me remind you of something. Remember there were masses following Jesus? Remember how He fed 5,000 with a few loaves and fishes? As long as He was doing miracles for them and feeding them, they flocked and followed Jesus anywhere. Many of those claimed to be His “disciples.” One day, Jesus drew a line. He gave a “HARD WORD” when He said, “You have to eat my flesh and drink my blood.” The response? Here are the words of John, “From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more” (John 6:66, NKJV).

Jesus brought a HARD WORD and had NEGATIVE church growth.

So, where did that leave me? At our Wednesday Bible Study, I broke from my normal series and started a message entitled: “The Guilty Crying Out For Innocence.” That may not sound too difficult – that is – until we get to the meat of the matter: WE ARE ALL GUILTY. The gospel of Christ is powerful in us because it is the ONLY way to find forgiveness. That Wednesday was heavy. And, I was nice enough to warn everyone that I would speak on this matter again the following Sunday.

Sunday comes around. And, as only God could work it – we had the largest attendance for a regular (non big event) Sunday. Nearly 200 in attendance. GREAT! All these people and I’m on assignment to lower the boom to a sinful nation guilty of innocent blood. And, if the nation is guilty, we are all guilty! As Nehemiah and Daniel prayed: “Forgive us of the sins of our fathers, our own sins, and the sins of us as a people.”

I was on assignment. For three days my heart was heavy. I had to wrestle with this. Was I afraid? YES! I was scared stiff!

Yet, my fear was not how the congregation would react to my depictions of the sins of our nations and that our lack of prayer and passion for Christ has covered our hands in blood. The devil lost that “fear” battle. My fear was of that which comes from the presence of a HOLY GOD! I knew that if I did not deliver that word from God I would be accountable to HIM and HIM ALONE!

I will conclude this BLOG with this fact: THE FEAR OF THE LORD IS REAL! Yes, we are the “friends of God” and He loves us and He is our Father. Yet, too often in our American “CHURCHianity” we have downgraded the immense holiness of God to “just God.” No beloved. The anthem of Heaven is: “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty….” We have heard the word “HOLY” in church so much and we have no clue what “HOLY” even means. It means, “Other AND Separate.” There is NONE other like HIM.

Child of God, we serve a HOLY God. Yes, we come “boldly by the blood” (Hebrews 10:19), but when we have a revelation of WHO He is we come trembling. John saw Him in the book of the Revelation and literally fainted (Revelation 1:17).

May we have a fresh revelation of the HOLY ONE and live under the fear of the Lord with great reverence that is due Him.

I don’t want to miss His will. I don’t want to displease Him. To do either has me “scared stiff.” I pray the FEAR of the Lord be renewed to His church and that, in turn, would move us to accomplish His purposes in us.