Posted by Dennis Gable - January 25, 2012 - Christian Living
The balance between manipulation and manifestation is a difficult one to recognize!
There is some level of trust that I believe the Lord wants us to have in His voice, which should create a willingness to say, “The world of the Lord is…” With this we should try to rid ourselves of the fear that we’re relaying the enemy’s word, which has us say things like, “well, um… I think it might be, but I’m not sure and feel like…” Just stop there.
In my last post I explained the process of intimacy with God in conversation. As Christians we are “filled with Holy Spirit”, and His role is to be the communicator and mediator between the Trinity and humanity. If He actually dwells within us, that means He is talking, whether we listen or not. This is a spiritual reality that we [as followers of the Way] should not be ashamed of, or timid about. When the Lord speaks, own it and relay it!
As most good things have, this has been tainted by manipulation and control. There is something very attractive about confidence, especially when this confidence revolves around God [or god] and exists in a realm that we can not see. What I’m saying is, when you say, “The Lord says…” people will listen to you! Please, for the sake of the thousands of people who I have met that “used to be a Christian”, but have left because another human has injured them in the name of the Lord, do not misuse this beautiful gift! This means do not get your way by using God, and do not blame your jackass fears or decisions on God either.
The main point is to own it!
Own your sin.
Own your fear.
Own your decisions.
Own your interaction with God.
And most importantly, own the weight of being a messenger for the creator.
Posted by Dennis Gable - January 24, 2012 - Christian Living
To some, the idea that humanity can hear from God is completely arrogant! To others, it is the only way they can manage to get through each day.
Those are two very dichotomous opinions about one topic, and I believe it is a topic worth discussing.
For years of being a Christian, I put myself in situations where I could experience different avenues of living out faith. I’ve sat amongst the most conservative Lutherans, as well as the most expressive Pentecostals. I was honestly freaked out by the extremes on either side, but the most frightening was the camp of believers in the Charismatic, Pentecostal, and Full Gospel churches.
Tongues, really?
Healing, really?
Miracles, really?
I mean, I “believed” that I served a God who could “do anything”, but why would He ever choose to do those things? They’re weird, right?
Yeah, they are kinda weird, but I was most afraid of how manipulative the actions were. It seemed to me that Preachers who led “Spirit filled” churches also led financial telethons, grandma guilt trips, and conferences where dollars were equivalent to spiritual blessing.
So, rather than take the time to get to know God on a spiritual level, I kept him at a logical arms reach and clung to the more conservative side of Christian expression. Well, just over a year ago, God broke through my stiff arm and dove straight into my heart with truth, freedom and experience!
This ignorance on my part kept me from a certain depth of intimacy, and the worst part is that I didn’t even know I was missing anything because!
Just over a year ago on a rooftop in Spain I sat in a white, plastic lawn chair with my elbows resting on my knees, my head resting on my palms and I was rocking back and forth. The rocking was because I was scared to death of becoming “one of them”.
A “tongue talker”
A “Carazymatic”
“Lord, please give me strength and freedom to explore life in the spirit!”
I repeated these words over and over until the moment happened; I tried to turn off the English that circles words through my mind and I just went for it… “SHO-TO-KO-SA-TA-RRRRA”
Then I started to feel weird… because it’s kinda weird!
Due to my weird feeling, I finished praying in English and didn’t revisit the action of praying in tongues for a couple weeks… Since then, it has become a pretty common aspect to how I live out my intimate relationship with God the Father.
A few weeks after fighting with the issue of praying in tongues, I was faced with prophecy, defined as: hearing from the Lord to encourage someone’s heart.
It was explained to me this way:
As a believer in Jesus Christ, we are told that our physical existence is “full of the Holy Spirit”.
If you are full of something that means it is within you.
The major role of the Holy Spirit is to be “mediator” between God and man, which means He is the communicator!
Since the Holy Spirit lives inside of me, and He is communicating with me, He is likely to speak to me in the voice that I am most familiar with… mine!
And one thing that I didn’t believe is that God is always speaking, and wanting me to hear His voice and respond to Him.
All of this means the following… If you have ever given your heart to Jesus [this does not mean holding your hand up in church, walking down to the altar, or making a social or emotional decision for those watching] then the Holy Spirit is communicating with you, far more than you’d probably be comfortable with.
There are a few implications to keep a pure heart and not become one of those assholes who says “God told me…” or “The Lord said…” in order to be manipulative!
- There should be a peace in your heart about what you are “hearing”.
- The Lord is going to speak words of love and grace for you to share with someone.
- Discernment is probably the most important thing in using the words, “The Lord said…” Please get to know the particular tone that Holy Spirit speaks to you in… He always calls me “son”, and will probably have an intimate way of making His voice known to you also.
- He will never speak against the truth written in the Word.
- Once you have the confidence to tell someone you heard His voice, make sure your heart is in check, so you don’t manipulate someone and blame it on Him.
- Understand that you won’t always hear correctly, which means you’ll be wrong from time to time… and that is ok!
Posted by Dennis Gable - January 21, 2012 - Motivation
Jeff Goins is a new friend of mine. 
And he is brilliant!
Jeff is a writer who writes about life, by writing about being a better writer, a ballsy writer, and a writer willing to take the risk. Through our short, but intentional friendship I have learned a lot about myself, by talking about writing. He recently released two e-books that will likely change your entire life, if you read them.
He has been kind enough to let me share a coupon-code with all of you… Whether you are a writer, or an artist, or a barista, please take advantage of this, you will not regret it!
Check out his most recent post that has a link to these wonderful e-books HERE.
When you get there… use ‘stopstalling’ as your coupon code.
Stop Stalling.
Take a Risk.
Initiate.
Follow Through.
Posted by Dennis Gable - January 10, 2012 - Motivation
If you step back and think of the hundreds if not thousands of things that you have internally thought, or verbally expressed as a desire, you might feel that heavy weight of failure…
Stop right there!
Your lack of discipline isn’t the reason you didn’t follow through with those “desires”, and it wasn’t your lack of drive either. You didn’t follow through because you didn’t actually desire those things.
They just sounded like a good idea.
And in the defense of the good ideas in your brain, they are likely beneficial things for your life. Now, in your defense, not all good ideas are the right idea; even the best idea at the wrong time in life can be disastrous.
Rather than going back and dissecting the last two, eight, even fourteen years of your life, just make it easy and accept that you’ve failed more than you’ve succeeded. Then move forward!
First determine what your true desires are during this season of life. It might be a desire and need to [re]organize your finances. Maybe the holidays put a few extra pounds around your waist and you want to get that beach body ready for June. Or, what if that idea for a bakery, a blog about your view of human interaction, or your plan to feed and clothe the homeless in your city is ripping you apart from the inside, like a tornado showing no mercy on a trailer park?
Fear can no longer be your excuse, because it’s not that you’re afraid; your level of desire just hasn’t reached desperation. When you arrive at this stomach turning feeling of desperate desire, then you must ignite discipline.
Desire and discipline must run hand in hand, if both are present. Allow discipline to guide your desire, while your desire fuels the discipline necessary to accomplish the task.
Dig deep.
Start fresh.
Create a routine.
Build a support structure.
And please…
DO NOT TURN BACK.
