Embracing Micaiah

Over the last several days, the same story has kept coming to me. It’s a story that makes a person chuckle one moment and say “ouch” another. I’m going to provide a synopsis for brevity reasons:

There were two allied Kings trying to decide whether they should go into battle with their enemies. They were “religious” men, so they called their “trusted” counselors and asked them whether God was in favor of, or against, them going into battle. There were over 400 of these trusted counselors and all of them told them to go into battle because they would win. One of the Kings asked the other King, “Is there not anyone else that we could ask?” Even after 400 “yes” answers, this King was still not convinced. The other King said, “There is another man. His name is Micaiah, but I hate him because he never says anything positive about me.” So, the first King asked the second King to have Micaiah brought in. Micaiah was already in prison because he had told the second King the truth in another situation and the second King didn’t like it. When they brought Micaiah in, at first, he told them to go to battle because they would win. The second King realized Micaiah was lying so he told him to tell the truth. At that point, Micaiah told them that the second King would die in battle. The second King told the first King, “I told you he wouldn’t say anything positive about me.” The second King had Micaiah put into prison until his return from battle. The second King died in battle. We don’t know much about what happened to Micaiah after that, although some speculate that he could be an “unnamed” prophet mentioned later on. We just don’t know for sure.

I kind of laugh every time I think about this story because I can picture the second King, the King of Israel, saying this with a whine in his voice, “There is another man. His name is Micaiah, but I hate him because he never says anything positive about me.”  But I am also amazed by the fact that the King of Israel realized that Micaiah was lying to him, at first, heard the actual prophesy, and still went into battle.

There are several lessons in this. For sake of the discussion that follows, lets pretend that God’s perfect will can be measured by a compass and that God’s perfect will is “north” and that anything else is not God’s perfect will.

The Kings are representative of people in leadership positions who are trying to make decisions. This could be church leaders, parents, people who are supervisors at their jobs or a myriad of other scenarios. Micaiah is representative of Christians who want to please God, but sometimes slip and fall. At first, he lied to the Kings because of fear. Micaiah was human and he allowed situations to affect the direction his moral compass pointed. In order to save his own neck, he was willing to deliberately advise the Kings to do something that he knew was wrong. The lesson here, even Christians are human and make mistakes. It’s how we correct our mistakes, and get back on course, that matters the most in the end. It occurred to me that sometimes a Micaiah may need another Micaiah in their life to get them back on course.

Most leaders find a Micaiah type person a little hard to embrace. As leaders, we don’t want to hear messages that question our decision making.  Sometimes Christian leaders seek counsel from trusted others and get the answer that they believe God has for them and then Micaiah shows up. He contradicts what the “trusted” others said. How do we know then what God wants us to do? I learned the following from a study I was doing with the young adult’s class and wanted to share it here.

First, we have to acknowledge that we don’t know everything. We have to be willing to listen to others. It’s possible for us to deceive ourselves. Our heart can mislead us, lie to us and misguide us. Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths.”

Second, we have to be willing to seek and surrender to God’s will. That is, seek God’s perfect will above all other earthly pursuits, and surrender to it completely before we know what it is. We accomplish this by reading, studying and meditating on the Bible and walking with God in prayer. Matthew 6:33 says, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”

Third, we have to pray about our decisions. As we pray, we will have competing voices in our head with the sole purpose of distracting us. They will represent things we could do, opportunities that could open up to us, and influences that will try to persuade us to choose one way over another. These voices can drown out God’s voice because he waits patiently and silently. We must silence all those voices and concentrate on God. God primarily speaks to His Children through His word and through His indwelling Holy Spirit in our heart. Jeremiah 33:3 says, “Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.” But heed this warning, the Holy Spirit will NEVER tell you something that contradicts the Word of God.

Last, but definitely not least, we need to seek godly counsel. We need to understand that this is the key step in getting assurance that what we are wanting to do is the right thing to do. It’s the “safety net” that God has given us to undergird our decisions. It’s the system of checks and balances to verify that our heart is pure and that our direction is truly biblical. To make sure that you get the most from those counselors, we need to keep a few things in mind. Initially our counselors may try to talk sense into us if they disagree with the direction that we want to go, but at some point, they will eventually choose to “support” our decision and hope for the best if we are persistent enough. We need to make sure that all counselors we seek advice from are godly and that they will approach giving us advice with fear and trembling. This needs to be counselors who would literally be absolutely terrified of counseling us with anything but biblical, Christ-centered advice. We need to listen with an open heart and don’t go in with our mind already made up. We are looking for either confirmation or contradiction to our decision and we want to seek the counsel of multiple godly counselors who meet the above criteria. Proverbs 11:14 says, “Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counselors there is safety” and Proverbs 12:15 says, “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes: but in the multitude of counsellors they are established.”

As a leader, I must admit that I haven’t always embraced the Micaiahs in my life. I only saw them as “negative” and not supporting of my decisions. Then I began to realize that I wasn’t “reading” things correctly. I began to recognize that my Micaiahs only verbalized things when they were concerned that my decisions may be less than the best, and the rest of the time they “positively” supported me in their unspoken actions. They taught classes that I wanted them to teach, they brought “gifts” of appreciation and so many other things. I just had to learn to recognize their love language to understand them…but that’s a whole other topic.

Adopting The Facebook Perception Mindset

For the last several months my favorite show has been a British murder mystery on Netflix called "Midsomer Murders." I was hooked from the very first episode because whoever wrote them really understood human nature and reasoning. Every episode has several plot twists over a course of almost two hours. As humans, and I admit I am no different, we make judgments and draw conclusions based on the "evidence" that we have available to us through one of our senses. In the case of Midsomer Murders, we only have our eyes and ears to provide us with the information we need to determine who the murderer is and the motive as to why they did it. The writers of Midsomer Murders did a phenomenal job of feeding the viewer just enough information to get them to formulate a theory and then they would feed them just enough additional information that the previous theory was probably not plausible. Over the course of two hours it would be very easy for the plot to change a half dozen times or more. As always, during the last few minutes of the show the big reveal takes place of who and why. As the viewer reminisces about the episode as a whole, they realize that at some point or another they suspected several folks, who were totally innocent, of having been guilty in some way or another. So often the person who seems most innocent and incapable of doing something so heinous is the murderer who was hiding behind a facade of innocence.

Since I like to use physical world examples for issues that potentially have spiritual world ramifications, I am going to do the same in this blog. As humans, we like to formulate conclusions about what others are doing based on what information we have collected, even if we don't have all the information we need to draw the correct conclusion.  This is true in the secular, as well as the religious arenas. We are all guilty of this, so if your cackles are up and you are huffy after reading this, please take the time to ask God to help you with your pride and then come back to read the rest of this blog.

Unfortunately we live in a world that has adopted a "facebook perception" mindset. What I mean by that is that people get their information in little snippits and from that they draw elaborate conclusions about situations that people are going through. Besides facebook, they see other people in short periods of time at church, or at church related functions, or hear things from those "innocent persons" behind the facade and from that they can determine the condition of other people's souls. Sometimes they even claim that "God" revealed something to them, when in reality they are so far off that one could question which "god" (notice the little "g") they are listening to.

Sometimes religious people question why other religious people do what they do, judge them harshly for doing it, yet they don't know the entire story. Fortunately for those people who are on the receiving end of that harsh judgment the Bible says in several places (Matthew 10:26, Mark 4:22, Luke 8:17, Luke 12:2) that " there is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known." We must be aware that this is a double-edged sword. If we are being judged and treated wrongly by those who don't know everything that they need to, to draw a correct conclusion, then God will be our advocate in the end and will set the record straight. However, if we are doing something wrong or purposefully misleading people and we are able to hide it in this life, it will be revealed in the next and we will have to answer for it.

Sometimes the judgments are not based on what a person is doing as much as why a person is doing what they are doing. Here's a little analogy...if a person is drowning out in the middle of a lake, the only person who can usually save them is another person who is out in the lake with them. It's extremely challenging to save somebody who is drowning out in the middle of a lake while standing on the shore line. In some cases, however, the "drowning" person will either reject the "saving" person's help or will drag them down with them in the process. In those cases, the person responding to the drowning person's need for help has no choice but to turn around and head back to the safety of the shoreline. Going back to the comment that sometimes religious people question why other religious people do what they do, one needs to put it into perspective. God sometimes sends certain people to other people in an attempt to help them. To those religious people standing at a distance it may seem ludicrous, "ungodly" and wrong, yet they seem to forget that their judgments are only based on what they see and perceive as being true and not necessarily what is reality. In the end, God will hold them accountable for any actions they take based upon their perceptions. And just like those who respond to a drowning person's need for help will have to turn back should all attempts fail, God's people sometimes have to change course when God directs them to do so. Ecclesiastes 3:1 says, "There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens".

Good Old-Fashioned Follow Through

When God created the world and mankind, he wanted to have a lasting relationship with his creation. Because mankind sinned in the garden of Eden, God had to implement a plan that would bridge the gap between Him and his creation. That plan was his son, Jesus, coming into the world. Most know the rest of the story. Jesus was born to a virgin mother, grew up, taught a message of redemption, allowed his life to be taken horrifically, arose from the grave and ascended to heaven.

Every part of the plan had to play out exactly a certain way or there would not have been anything to bridge the gap between God and mankind. The bible gives us insight into what Jesus was feeling in the garden of Gethsemane when he prayed to God, "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done." Jesus followed through on his father's plan because he knew that anything less would prevent all of mankind from being able to have a redeemed relationship with God, which would ultimately lead to eternal damnation for all.

In the past when a couple of people would shake hands on something, that meant that they were committing to following through on whatever they had agreed upon. Folks giving their word actually meant something. When somebody said they were going to do something, they followed through with it barring some earth shattering phenomena that prevented them from doing so. On the extremely rare occasion that a person was unable to follow through, they would exhaust all avenues to make sure their commitment was covered. After all, it was their integrity at stake and they were people of integrity. They understood that by not following through on their commitments, they were in essence saying to those to whom they had committed that they were not as important as other things in their lives.  Although it is true that people could have situations come up that alter their plans, those should be the rare exception and not the rule.

Unfortunately we all have to deal with those people who seem to like to add their names to sign up sheets, but the likelihood of their following through is only slightly better than the likelihood of winning the Publishers Clearing House sweepstakes. As a father, I am teaching my sons to follow through on their commitments and to not commit to anything that they are not willing to follow through on. Good old fashioned follow through shouldn't just be a practice of yester-years, but also a practice of the here and now. I will do my part by making sure that I follow through on what I commit to and teach my boys to do the same. As for those who keep volunteering but don't follow through, try practicing a little integrity and start following through or just don't volunteer. It is much better for organizations to know they are going to have a shortfall in volunteers so they know how to plan instead of believing they are going to have volunteers and then have to scramble to try to fill the gaps.

Freedom Through Truth

If your life were to end within the next 24 hours, would you REALLY be ready to stand before God? This question prompted me to do a little self-examination. You see, I don’t believe Christians receive a “get out of Hell” card just because we say the sinner’s prayer and then we can do whatever we want. As Christians, we still make mistakes and sometimes we make bad decisions. Maybe I am just talking to myself on this one, but sometimes I try to justify my faulty decisions by comparing my decisions to others’. There have been times when I have searched dozens of online articles in my desire to rationalize what I wanted to do. The ironic thing about searching online is that there are always others who may share our beliefs or philosophies, but that doesn’t mean that they are correct. They’re just “like” minded. In fact, there have been times when I have found dozens of articles that would say and reiterate the exact same thing about what certain scripture verses meant. Then I would come across the one that said something that was more pleasing to what I wanted to believe and that was the one that I really wanted to accept as truth. If I were to accept those “alternative” interpretations as truth though, then who would I really be fooling?

John J. Parsons, a minister who helps clarify the Hebrew meaning of scripture for Christians wrote, “Self-deception is a universal condition of mankind. The scripture declares, “Every man’s way is right in his eyes” indicating that by nature we are self-justifying creatures, prone to believe our own “propaganda” and wishful thinking. We are apt to be biased in our self-examination and ready to excuse ourselves at every turn, rationalizing our behavior and suppressing the truth about ourselves in order to quell the voice of conscience within our hearts. When faced with an inconsistency between our behavior and our romanticized self-image, we often regard ourselves as something other than what we really are. In short, we deceive ourselves.”

I have found over the years though that I can’t really even trick myself into believing my own self-deceptions. As Christians, God put within us an inner voice that tells us when we are doing something that is not in alignment with his nature or his Word. As hard as we try, when we are outside his will we don’t have the same peace and joy that God allows us to have when we are within his will. When we are outside God’s will, we can still have momentary fun and happiness, but the true peace and joy that we really desire eludes us. In essence, we are trading temporary happiness and self-gratification for long term peace and joy.  

What is the remedy? It is through the honest confession of our condition, repentance and the turning away from those behaviors which we know are outside God’s will for our lives that we find healing. As Jesus said, you shall then know the truth, and “the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32).

So let’s revisit the question again. If your life were to end within the next 24 hours, would you REALLY be ready to stand before God?

Lessons From Affabel

When Karen, the boys and I go on trips, we almost always listen to the dramatized audio version of John Bevere’s, “Affabel: Window of Eternity.” It is one of my favorites.

It’s an allegory of our own lives here on earth, how we are given talents from God, how we use them, our faith in King Jalyn (Jesus), and our future eternity. The main story revolves around Deceived, Selfish, Independent, Faint Heart, and Charity who are taught the ways of King Jalyn at the School of Endel (Earth) beginning at very young ages who all subsequently graduate to enter secular society.  Sageous (Holy Spirit) mentors these five while in Endel and continues to observe them while they function in society.

Choices these five make while interacting with others and their faith (or lack thereof) help determine their eternity.  One day the Royal Guards (Angels) of Affabel (Heaven) come and round everyone up; the Day of Judgement is at hand.  They are brought to Affabel, go through the Hall of Judgment, and individually meet their Judge, King Jalyn, who judges their lives based on their actions compared to the written instructions that he provided, which ultimately determines their place in eternity.

One of my favorite scenes is when Selfish, who was elected mayor of Endel after he graduated, is standing before King Jalyn and he finds out that one of the ladies he knew in Endel as an administrative assistant is now a sub-ruler in Affabel. He is surprised and then surmises that since she was in his opinion a nobody in Endel and that he was the mayor, surely he would be given a higher position of ruler ship in Affabel. When King Jalyn asks the record keeper how many people Selfish had influenced for his Kingdom, the record keeper gives a number in the mid-teens. Selfish is feeling smug until he finds out that the woman had influenced more than five thousand people. Selfish asks how that is possible since she was so quiet and not in a real position of influence. King Jalyn states that the woman had influenced a man named “evangelist” and that all those that he had influenced for King Jalyn’s kingdom were also credited to her.

As a person in a position of influence within the church, who is strongly endorsed by Church leadership in many denominations, John Bevere was making quite a bold statement when he wrote this portion of Affabel. There seems to be a certain discriminatory mind-set within the Christian church that implies that if people are not out loudly proselytizing their Christian beliefs that they are not really doing much to influence the Kingdom of God. Some very public and outspoken Christian leaders have even stated that anybody who is not loudly proclaiming their beliefs as a Child of God is not giving God their all and will someday stand before God and have to give account for their lack of passion.

Hmmmm….

I imagine that passion is a lot like pain, it is hard to quantify because it can’t be accurately measured and is subjective based on the person involved. Outward manifestation of passion doesn’t really mean anything. Two people could be watching the same sports event, movie or something that stirs them and both be very passionately moved yet one may scream loudly and act crazy while the other sits quietly, smiles and shows no other outward behavior.  Could it be that God created people differently for a reason?

Dallas Holm has a song titled “Prayer Warriors” and the first few lyrics are: “Most will never see their faces, Never know their names, What they do they do alone, They don't need no fame.”

God is able to use many types of people. Some have very loud and sometimes forceful passion, while others are more quiet and reserved. Some serve in full view of the public while others serve in more intimate areas. Prayer Warriors are examples of the latter.  God knows what each person in this world needs in order for them to be receptive to having a relationship with Him. He knows what type of person will be most effective at influencing those to whom he has sent them.

I am glad that God is the ultimate final judge. Since He is the only one who ultimately knows the hearts of all men and women, and knows what each person is doing to influence others for His kingdom, He is the only who can truly judge, punish and reward without prejudice. In the meantime, we Christians need to be less judgmental of how other Christians go about doing what God has task them to do and perhaps even learn how to support each other in our endeavors.

Unquantifiable Faith

When I was in my mid-teens I had a friend that I hung out with that was several years older than me. He was an aspiring youth pastor and we seemed to compliment each other’s personalities. At times he could be very impulsive and extremely carefree and I was very conservative and extremely serious. He would introduce me as his “analytical friend.” I always laughed because I thought it amusing. We were friends for years, but as time and relationships sometimes changes things, we grew apart and started living very different lives.

Being an analytical person has served me well in the secular arena. In high school and college I experienced very little difficulty in learning whatever I was required to learn and I was always an honor student. In my career field I have blossomed and excelled. My official career title even includes the word “analyst” in it. As an analyst, I am expected to evaluate data and propose ways to improve my organization's efficiency. I advise our leadership, at all levels, on how to make our organization more viable through reduced costs and increased revenues. Since I am a dual analyst, I am also responsible for researching, planning, coordinating and recommending software and hardware system choices to meet our organization’s technology requirements.

Just as being an analytical person has served me well in the secular arena, it has been a hindrance to me in the spiritual. You see, I want everything to be testable and quantifiable. In my mind, the only things that can be unequivocally accepted as true are those things that can be “proven” through scientific methodologies. The concept of taking things based on “faith” is extremely challenging. Why? Because taking things based on faith frequently requires me to lay aside those mechanisms that I have been endowed with that help me “analyze” testable and quantifiable data, and just accept what somebody else wrote and/or said. That is disconcerting to somebody like me. Especially considering that I have learned not to “trust” or “believe” so many people over the years. 

So just what is the biggest issue? I find myself having to trust people that I haven’t met, or ever will get to meet in this lifetime, that when they wrote the Bible they were truly being led by God (Holy Spirit) to do so and that they didn’t make any mistakes. Thus, I can't use scientific methodology to prove or disprove every page of the Bible or the existence of God. So what does that leave me with? FAITH.

Faith is a strong belief in God, or in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual apprehension rather than proof. Faith means being sure of the things we hope for and knowing that something is real even if we do not see it. Some things we all experience in life can't be explained through the use of scientific methodologies, but we still know they exist. Take the intangible and abstract entity that we know as "love".

The physiological manifestations of love are somewhat quantifiable. Chemical reactions in the brain formulates the basic gamut of love. The non-chemical portion of love is not so easily quantified. The feelings, thoughts, memories, experiences, wants, hopes, wishes, dreams, and expectations one associates with the word “love” are all unique and independent. No matter how much one may argue love is simply a chemical reaction occurring in the brain, there is a definite variability in every person’s view on the definition of love.

A long time ago I decided that I was going to choose to trust the accuracy of the Bible and the existence of God, even if I could not prove them utilizing scientific methodologies. That is where faith comes in. I know my thoughts on this are not going to sway purist "analytical" people who are unwilling to accept anything on "faith", but it may help explain why an intelligent person may choose to believe in things that he or she cannot physically see, hear, smell, taste or touch.

The Anti-God State of Mind

C.S. Lewis called pride “the great sin.” In his book, Mere Christianity, Lewis said, "According to Christian teachers, the essential vice, the utmost evil, is Pride. Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness, and all that, are mere flea bites in comparison: it was through Pride that the devil became the devil: Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind…… it is Pride which has been the chief cause of misery in every nation and every family since the world began."

In the secular arena, leaders who have a high level of self-confidence usually excel because they fully comprehend their abilities and are able to leverage those abilities to make things happen. Self-confidence is not bad in of itself, but when it reaches the point where a person becomes un-teachable and/or self-righteous, then it may no longer be self-confidence but pride. It is this type of pride which is being referred to in this blog. The most destructive thing that can plague any leader is pride, but especially when it is a Christian leader.

So what is meant by unteachable? As leaders, we often become set in doing things a certain way because that is what has worked for us in the past. Because of past "victories", we become blind to other ways of doing things. We adopt a "it's my way or the highway" mentality that can actually hinder the work that God wants to do. How? God may be preparing new people with new ideas who can reach people in a way that we haven't been able to reach them before. Some people are receptive to the gospel through music and others through drama. For some, they may only be receptive to the gospel through in-your-face evangelism or one-on-one mentoring. It is for this reason that leaders need to be receptive to new ideas and not attempt to monopolize all decision making and force others to conform to their ideas. As leaders, we need to let God be God because we really don't know it all. We need to stop surrounding ourselves with people who have adopted the exact same practices that we have adopted. We need to replace the "yes men/women" who tell us what we want to hear with Godly men/women who tell us what God is telling them.

So what is meant by self-righteous? As leaders, we sometimes lose sight of our own weaknesses and faults. We sometimes forget that we are mere humans and that we make mistakes, just like everybody else. We become critical of others and start finding faults in others without taking a good hard look at ourselves. We sometimes start believing that we are not accountable to anyone and may even forget that we are accountable to God. We become demanding and controlling to the point where we will not to let go of anything that we were instrumental in starting, and in which we may not have been actively participating, because we feel that we still know best. As a secular leader, I have been involved in many projects from the conception to  implementation of an idea. In the very beginning, I micro-managed those projects to make sure that they were implemented as true to the conceived idea as possible, but at some point I had to learn to let go of my projects and hand the reins over to other people. Sometimes those people would take the project in a slightly different direction because that was what was best for the organization. I suspect that in the spiritual arena, God works the same way. He gives somebody an idea to implement, but at some point they have to turn the reins over and allow others to take it in any new direction that God intends. At that point, we do have to allow God to be God.