An Example of War Footing (Post 4)

By David Hobbs

(Keep Reading down from the last Post)

The concept of war footing became very real to me back when we built our first church building, what’s now known as “The Old Sanctuary” at GT. At that point we were a Jesus People, “hippie church.” Our founding pastor, Jerry Russell, had turned the work over to Reg Layzell out of Canada. Reg was a no-nonsense, man’s-man who impressed upon us that if we were going to continue to grow, we needed a bigger facility than our rented, old Cal-Trans building in Marysville. He convinced us of two things: we weren’t going to go to the world (i.e. the bankers) for our financing but were going to believe God for the money to come in; and we were going to do the work ourselves instead of paying others to do it. We were all excited by the prospect, but of course didn’t realize the price we were going to be required to pay. The only way it would work was the church was going to have to go on the equivalent of a war footing-- It would take a total sacrifice and commitment.

         For sake of time, I’ll just mention a few things. Every Sunday, sometime during our service, Brother Layzell would stop the service and ask Mark Cites, the foreman, how many workers he would need next Saturday. Mark might say, “I need 4 people to pull wire, and 10 to stuff insulation.” Brother Layzell would ask for a show of hands of those who would be there. The service wouldn’t go on until we had the necessary people for Saturday. People were on the spot. Many already had plans. The Mrs. had made her husband promise to take her and the kids to the lake over the weekend. But brother Layzell was ready. He would say in his droll voice, “I know some of you ladies want your husbands to spend the weekend with your children. That’s fine; bring the children out to the building too. What better example can dad be to your children than for them to see him working on the house of the Lord. They can run around picking up wire and bringing water to the workers. You wives can come too and help the sisters prepare food for everybody. Oh and another thing. I hear that some of you are planning to take vacations this summer. We need to cancel all vacations until the building is finished. Here’s an idea: put the money you were going to spend on your vacation into the building fund.”

            Of course some people became offended and left the church, but he never failed to get the people needed week by week. The people who left were those not willing to get on a war footing to get the project done. A war footing means that someone else, the commanding officer, is calling the shots. It’s the difference between civilian and military life. Military life gets results: it wins battles, defeats enemies, and wins wars. Civilian life is always more enjoyable. But you can’t get military results with civilian effort. Civilian life will never win a war or defeat an enemy.

So our ragtag band of ex-hippies ended up building a sanctuary/office/classroom complex of 19,000 sq ft. without borrowing from the bank in under 2 years, because we went on a war footing.

            The church is called to be the army of God. The most common name for God in the Bible is “The Lord of Hosts.” which means, “Lord of armies.” When Jesus returns to earth, He is leading an army from heaven, an army I expect many of us to be in. it’s not an army of angels, but an army of the redeemed. (Would angels be riding on horses?)

            The church in America is enjoying civilian life, but needs the discipline and commitment of military life in the hour we are entering into. We are about to be thrust into battle as in Joel 1 & 2, and military life is the only way we can win. Think of Jesus trying to lead an army of cats into battle, each one doing its own thing! That’s the situation we are in now.

            The Apostle Paul talked a lot about the military and the Olympic games. It’s obvious he knew the church needed the discipline both produce:

1 Cor. 9:234-25--Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown.

And in 2 Tim. 2:3-4--You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier.

In Eze. 17, in the vision of the valley of dry bones, God identified them as “the whole house of Israel.” But when Ezekiel prophesied to them and they stood up and lived, they stood up as “an exceedingly great army.” The people of God are called to be an army.

Rev. 19:11-14--Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses.

That’s what we’re called to folks.

(This is the end of this series of posts)

Trans-gender Bathrooms

By David Hobbs

This was a letter-to-the-editor I submitted which was published  in our local paper last week. I think the time has come to push back, and if we don't drive them away, I think there are many non-Christians who will join us.

Dear Editor,

Men and women are wired differently. For instance, there are periodic stories in your paper about men with hidden cameras on their shoes trying to film up women’s dresses, make secret films in women’s bathrooms and locker rooms, etc. Men have this fascination with the female anatomy! Everybody knows that. When was the last time you saw a story about a woman trying to take secret pictures of naked men? Why do we have “Peeping Toms” but not “Peeping Susans”? Men are wired to get sexual stimulation visually. Advertisers know that. Look how many products are sold with pictures of scantily-clad women! On the other hand, you send chocolates, flowers, and mushy cards to women on Valentines Day, not men. Men and women are simply wired differently.

So whose lunacy was it to allow men and boys into girls’ locker rooms and bathrooms as long as they “self identify as women”? Did anybody see a potential problem with this? I was just reading an article on The Daily Wire (an internet news feed) about instances where they’ve caught men in woman’s bathrooms spying on women while using the transgender excuse. One guy they caught had an hour’s worth of secret video on his phone already. Are we supposed to feign shock and surprise? “Wow I never saw that coming!” And those who want to pull the plug on this idiocy are called “bigots” and “haters”

The real question in my mind is how long the rest of us are going to put up with this? Back when they were pushing gay marriage so hard, many on my side thought, “Let’s just give this to them and they’ll be satisfied and leave us alone.” Nothing could have been farther from the truth! Neither will they leave us alone if we let them get away with this bathroom outrage. There are already movements afoot to allow humans to marry (and have sex with) animals, and to legalize sex between adults and children. They’re just waiting for the right time after the transgender bathroom flap dies down. When are the majority of us decent folk (Christian and non-Christian alike) going to draw a line in the sand and start pushing back? I tell you, they will never stop until they are stopped.

Finding the Essence of Revival

By David Hobbs

What is the true essence of revival? I’ve been hungering for revival all my Christian life, since I came to Christ on the tail end of the Jesus People Movement in the early 70s. I saw enough to get excited, but heard stories of greater things I had missed.

To me revival was when the Spirit of God was being poured out in signs and wonders—mass healings, invisible angels playing the piano to accompany the worship, people being translated from one place to another, mass slayings in the Spirit—you’ve heard the stories. Whenever there was a report of revival meetings, I went, hoping to see the miraculous.

The Lord quickened to me once that this was the same spirit as the Pharisees in Jesus’ day. They came out to see Jesus, hoping to see a miracle. And Jesus wouldn’t cater to such curiosity seekers. Still, I longed to experience the miraculous, and truth be told, so do most people, Christian or not.

 So when I heard about revival meetings up in the hills, I decided to go.

There were about 30 people in a house converted from a barn. The two things that struck me when I first walked in were the excitement and the love. These people loved all over me, a total stranger, and were excited about what God was doing. Their sense of expectancy was through the roof. (I had just preached a message in my little church about the things missing in the modern church from the early church. The very first one I had mentioned was excitement!)

The house was on a ridge outside of the little podunk town of Rough and Ready, a small town to begin with that the highway now bypassed. There was a great view of the mountains. The worship leader was Keith Luker a musician with a nation-wide ministry. The week before he had been leading worship at an East Coast conference with Heidi Baker and now he had driven 3 hours from Redding to this out-of-the-way place to lead us.

I had a hard time entering into the service. They were wonderfully outgoing and exuberant while I was uncertain and reserved. We were on different wavelengths but the presence of God was there though there was no miraculous, I knew I had to go back the next week and give it another try. I had to do a better job of getting up to speed.

The next week Keith was back again. He began to share on revival. He was talking about the Welch Revival, and how Evan Roberts said that in revival, the time when prayer is most desperately needed is when … (what do you think the answer is? When the revival has gotten off track? When the revival starts to wane? When there is no revival and you need to get it started?) The answer is … when the revival is at its peak! Miracles are happening right and left, people are being swept into the Kingdom by the droves…. Why is prayer so desperately needed then? To keep the revival from going off the tracks, to keep the devil from hijacking it like Brother Parnham tried to hijack the Azusa St. Revival? Then I remembered a bit of wisdom I had heard repeated many times over the years: How do you know when the revival is over? Answer: When people start talking about it; i.e., when people recognize they are in it!

Click! Suddenly a bunch of things fell into place. The reason prayer is so desperately needed at the peak of the revival is because that’s when people start to coast. They think they’ve now arrived and can sit back and enjoy the ride. They’ve reached the top of the mountain; now it’s time to ride down the other side, which means it’s the beginning of the end for the revival. It won’t end immediately, but it will start to wane because the force that was driving it has ceased. Now if the essence of the revival was the signs and miracles, it wouldn’t appear to be waning at all. Excitement would still be high; miracles would still be going strong…. But without that driving force of seeking, it would have to wind down. (There is always a time lag in the spirit realm.)

That meant I was wrong about the essence of revival being the miraculous. The miraculous is at the tail end, not the front end of revival. It is the fruit revival produces, not what makes the revival happen. That what is the essence? It hit me in a sudden flash—the seeking. The all out, no holds barred seeking of God, the crying out to Him: “Ye shall seek me, and ye shall find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.”

Then something else hit me: that’s why they say that any mass revival must first begin with personal revival. Revival doesn’t fall from heaven on a passive congregation like rain. Rather, “the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force.” God responds to the hunger of His people crying out for Him by coming to them in powerful visitation that we call “revival.” When the hunger cools off, God backs off. That’s why it was so important for the church of Ephesus to regain its first love (Rev. 2).

In the second meeting, as I looked around at the group crying out to God in exuberant song and praise with all their hearts, I suddenly realized: “They are already in revival! This is revival.” This was the essence of revival right before my very eyes. They were so excited about the Lord, so desirous of His presence, so wanting more of Him. I entered in with the rest of them, shouting and singing out with all my strength: begging for more, asking to go higher, deeper, feel Him closer….

So I’m in. I’m going for it with all my heart and see where this bus takes us!


Commentary
Many churches sit around waiting for revival, hoping for it, praying, even fasting for it, believing it will lift them from their doldrums. But it’s not “revival” we need, nor miracles. It’s Jesus. We’ve got to fall enough in love with Him that we can honestly cry out for more of Him. He has to be the focus. If we’re not willing to go after Jesus with whatever it takes: prayer, time, repentance, energy, perseverance, following the leading of the Holy Spirit, putting our stuff on the altar, letting go of the things of this world, reordering our priorities, truly putting Him first—then  we won’t experience personal and never have church revival.


No Extra Charge
It amazes me how many people refuse to admit they are lukewarm and backslidden, when you have to look no farther than the very first commandment: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all they heart, all thy mind, all thy soul and all thy strength.” Sit around with a group of Christians at a potluck and listen to what they talk about: sports, family, clothes, cars, jobs, health issues, politics…. Do you ever hear Jesus mentioned? Like a fresh revelation from the Bible or prayer? Yet Jesus said that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth would speak. Since the mouth is not speaking about Jesus, I have to conclude there is nothing going on in the heart about Him either, that all these other things are more important. So how could such a one possibly claim they loved the Lord with all their heart, soul, mind and strength? Such a preposterous claim would be laughed out of the courts of heaven!