Do We Really?

(Deep breath). Ok, I got sooo much running through my head that I know I’ll explode if I don’t release. You gotta bear with me cause this is one of those “where do I start” entries.

Ok, I know when the Lord is screaming at me cause I’ll get messages in threes. The final came just about 15 minutes ago as I was riding home. I was listening to Coco Brotha on 104.1FM and he was talking about JESUS. Not gospel music, not the newest artist, not the current church events……but JESUS. He was basically saying how Jesus came to earth to redeem us so that we could have direct access to God. And how the same power that Christ has is ours through the Holy Spirit. Then he talked about how we are going to be held accountable for not being obedient to the Word of God. He was saying a whole lot of stuff that was hitting my buttons, but then the question of the year rang loudly again in my ear---forget the thought that do folk really believe in the power of God, but the question is........do folk really believe that there is a God?????

The second message came this morning as I was having breakfast with one of my girlfriends. Let me just say this first……I assure you that I wasn’t eating--lol!!!! Some of yal know why I had to say this. Anyway……my girlfriend just came back from her first real missions trip out of the country. And when she called me to have breakfast with her she could hardly contain herself cause she needed to talk to me. I mean, everything she does is over the top so I knew she had some deep details of how great her trip was. So I dropped everything and ran out to have breakfast with her.

As soon as we could get to a discreet location she blurted out that while on her trip she had to repent. She kept saying to me, “Jill I had to repent. I had to repent." She first started off by telling me how bound and spiritually mal-nourished the folk there are. But then she said that she had to repent because there she was claiming to be a holy roller "woman of God" from the U.S. and she didn’t even have enough power in her to help deliver some of those folk. Off the subject for a moment….this reminds me of my study on the seed a couple of weeks ago. Anyway……my girlfriend started crying to me and said something that hit me in my gut. She said that if we are claiming to be Christians, but what is in us is not powerful enough to bring healing/deliverance/repentant hearts, then we need to check ourselves.

She told me about how a little boy got sick and fell nearly dead in the service. She said the boy’s eyes were rolling back in his head and the folk around him were giving up on him. Then she said the pastor had someone call an ambulance and while the ambulance was on the way he started collecting the offering. She said she was so vexed with herself and with the pastor that she went and asked him to stop---and she's real bold so I can just imagine how she approached him (lol)---so that they could pray over the little boy. She said she started praying with everything she had in her and slowly but surely the boy started coming around all the way until he testified and said that when he went down his body felt like somebody was squeezing him real tight. Ain’t a whole lot to this. And this ain’t uncommon. Folk are dropping dead daily cause something is squeezing the life out of them but yet we dismiss it as “it was his/her time to go.” So we’ll bury a soul in a heartbeat, right after having a huge homegoing service. You know how us Christians do. We'll have a marching band at the funeral to "celebrate life".

Then it hit me again. It went back to something that happened over the weekend. On Sunday, and I said I wasn’t gonna mention this one but it’s bubbling out of me. What the heck. But on Sunday I was sitting in church next to a young lady. And sitting next to her was a guy that goes to the church. I’m very familiar with both. Anyway, halfway through the service the young lady whispers to me and says….. “can you move down a seat because [such and such] just mouthed to me that I shouldn’t be sitting next to this guy cause he’s crazy.” I looked at dude and then at her in disbelief. To keep the peace I did move down one seat and she moved down next to me creating a gap between she and the guy. But I was PISSED. Yes, I said it…….PISSED.

Ok, I was partly pissed because I was surprised that “such and such” who holds a high position in the church would say something so immature and ungodly. But what made me mad was because her actions, and mine too now that I think about it, basically said that “the demon in dude is greater than the God in me”. That’s basically what “such and such” was inferring. So when my girlfriend said what she said this morning it just hit home cause she’s right. If a person who we claim needs help, healing, deliverance, empowerment, whatever is not changed while in our presence……then something is wrong with US. Bottomline.

Me and my sister have been having this conversation all year……do folk really believe that there is a God? Do folk really believe that Jesus is real? I mean, we talk a good game. And we sing a good song. But I truly believe that a lot of folk say they believe in God only because stuff they can’t control they have to have some type of explanation for. Then there are some that are going with the flow in believing in a higher power because it’s the right thing to do. And then there are those who are conditioned by their ancestors to believe in God. And then there's the mass majority who are caught up in what God has in His hands for them.

But I say this…..if you REALLY believe in God then you will obey His Word. Not just read it, memorize it, and quote it. But LIVE IT. Bottomline. Us church folk are so caught up in self-righteousness and having our images fixed to being “a man/woman of God” that we are forgetting that we have been commissioned to serve, not be served. I'll say this over and over again......we have been commissioned to do two things on this earth: love our brethren and spread the gospel. And both are tasks of serving. As Coco Brotha said….it could be something as simple as telling a colleague that Jesus is Lord. But a lot of us can’t even say it. Some of us are too embarrassed to mention that we are Christians. Cause bottomline we don’t really believe.

As my girlfriend expressed……..I too need to repent. Lord, I repent. Not for something I did or said, but because of something that I’m not doing. And that is walking in Your FULLNESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Master, Master, we're going to drown!” He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters; the storm subsided, and all was calm. “Where is your faith?” he asked his disciples. In fear and amazement they asked one another, “Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him.” --Luke 8:24-25

“If you love me, you will obey what I command.” --John 14:15