BECOMING

Everyone has an agenda. 

As a pastor you only have to be around for 5 minutes to meet someone with an agenda.  And while almost every agenda I’ve been presented with is honest and noble and true, I wonder why it should become the sole responsibility of the pastor.  Bundled with care and dumped on my doorstep.

A conviction is actually the responsibility of the very person holding it.  Collectively, when each Jesus-follower outworks their passion and gifting we become a wholesome expression of Christ’s body in the Earth. 

But enough about that – I want to share with you that which is my agenda. 

Yes even I have an agenda.
As a pastor, what am I in this for? 

The Prophet Ezekiel had a vision where he was being led by a man of God through a Temple.  Flowing out of the temple was a river.  The temple represents Jesus, and the river is the Gospel.  I am wildly captivated by this experience Ezekiel had. 

Trees were lining the banks of the river.  They were lush in every season, never failing to bear fruit for food and leaves for medicine.  Everywhere the river flowed it brought healing.  Bitter waters were made sweet and every creature dwelling in it was full of health.  The river was teeming with all kinds of fish, representing youth and new converts.  It was bringing life and perpetuating life everywhere it went.  You should read it – it’s amazing!  (Ezekiel 47)

I noticed immediately that the river became deeper and wider as it continued.  Moving not stagnant.  The waters, the Gospel, are a revelation of Grace.  Grace is not a one-off event – it continues to press us forward into eternity.

My agenda is that I would BE AMONG a group of people who are progressing, moving outwards and running deep.

The waters of revelation swell within us.  They increase; they grow fuller and deeper the further they go.

I remember sitting with a mentor years ago and desperately asking him,

“How do I reprogram?  I feel so stuck in my mindsets and patterns of being, but I can’t see any way of recreating myself.  How do I reprogram?”

He simply told me, “You need to see another facet of God.”

You see, we are all products of our environments.  You are a culmination of everything you’ve seen, heard, experienced and done.  You were programed in your family of origin and by your experiences. You function subconsciously and by default out of that programing.  Until you reprogram.

The only way to reprogram is to see another facet of God.  I sat with my mentor and I was already a Christian, although I’d only seen a few of Jesus’ characteristics.  My defaults had prevented me from seeing so many others.  Until that day. 

“You need to see another facet of God.”

Those words have never left me.  When I am stuck now, I know it is because I am missing the revelation required to take me into the freedom of a new space.  I need to go deeper.  I need to see something of Him I haven’t seen before.  The world must stop, and I must plunge into the depths of Him. 

There is breakthrough in revelation
and I will not cease until I see it.

Could it be that your thirst will only be quenched in direct proportion to your surrender to the current?  I want to ask you, are you submerged?

The man of God beckoned Ezekiel out into the depths of the river in stages. 

Ezekiel 47
3 And when the man went out to the east with the line in his hand, he measured one thousand cubits, and he brought me through the waters; the water came up to my ankles. 4 Again he measured one thousand and brought me through the waters; the water came up to my knees. Again he measured one thousand and brought me through; the water came up to my waist.5 Again he measured one thousand, and it was a river that I could not cross; for the water was too deep, water in which one must swim, a river that could not be crossed.

You will have as much of Jesus as you want.
You will only get as deep as you want to go.

For me, it has been a progression. 

I accepted an invitation to Church from a university friend.  Then met a pastor who remembered my name and introduced me to other university students.  I joined a small group, and the creative team, and started serving in the youth ministry.  I created my own space with God to study, worship and pray.  It was certainly a progression.  Through it my body has been healed supernaturally, I have been emotionally restored and slowly and consistently I have overcome the bondages of poor mindsets right up to this very day.

I certainly don’t deserve the life I live today, but I tapped into it because the river brings life wherever it goes.  That’s Grace.  That’s the Gospel message.

You can admire the scenery, or test the water with your toes.  Or you can dive into the mysteries of the kingdom of Heaven in full abandonment.  If you do take the plunge, ask not, “What will I get?” But, “Who will I become?”

My pastor’s heart is to see a gathering of people who are "becoming".

As a Pastor I know every person is on a journey.  I am committed to giving people the grace they need for their unique place in that journey.  I will also pray they don’t stay there.  My deepest desire is that they are "BECOMING": free, empowered, victorious, whole, and influential.

My commitment to those around me is this:
If you venture deep into this water with me – I will create a space for you to become all that Heaven INTENDed you to be.

Will you go another thousand?  Do you see him in the river bidding you to come?  Will you let go of the shoreline – your patterns, your mindsets, your security and all you have known? 

You’ve played in the shallows now for long enough.  You’ve swirled the water with your toes and your clothes are still mostly dry, so too is your soul.  What have you got to lose except the dryness of mediocrity and predictability?  You have everything to gain. 

You can trust Him.  He’s perfect.  The only One who is.  And He knows you - better than you know yourself.  He knows the real you, the one He created you to be.  He wants you to become acquainted with that version of you.

Be done with shallow living.  Let go.  Plunge in.  You’ll become fully you, when you are fully in Him.  Submerged.  Thriving.  Healed. 

“Come…  Come…” He’s beckoning you. 
“Come out another thousand.”