How to be a World Changer 101

How does one person really make a difference?

I'm sure if you're anything like me... (meaning if you're a human being) you've thought this before.

We all have a longing within us to change the world somehow.

Some people want to change it for the better and some people just want to change it so people know who they are or for selfish gain

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I can think of quite a few well-known people that wanted to change things in the world, but it definitely wasn't for the better. In fact, it included a whole lot of killing. Actually it included genocide of an entire people group.

We as humans really just want to leave our mark somehow.

We want people to know that we existed on this earth.

We had a part to play in our country, city, family.

This longing is absolutely a God thing!

He created you to want to make your mark somehow.

He created you to want to build solutions for problems, big and small.

He created you to want to create things.

After all, we do reflect His image and make-up.

God, creator of the universe, created you to want to create, because He made you like Him.

We all could definitely do a little better at being like Him, but our roots are His roots none the less.

So back to the original question.

How do we make a difference?

A good difference.

I had a little glimpse of that this morning.

It looked different than what I expected it would.

It looks a lot like a family.

A team.

A people who come together, link arms with each other.

They love each other with love that cannot be mustered up without the help of Jesus.

Let's face it, we all have those "personality types" that we just can't get along with.

These people cover their brother when he is struggling.

They fight for each other when their brother is feeling too weak to fight on his own.

They build one another up and call out the good things that they see.

They look at one another through eyes of mercy and love.

They don't use a filter of condemnation and pride.

They do not back stab each other.

They take no time to talk poorly about one another.

Hitler for example (an example of a bad difference).

Was Hitler actually able to kill every single one of those Jewish people on his own?

Could he really get that many Jews in one place by himself?

Absolutely not.

It's physically impossible for one man to be able to do all that on his own.

He had a vision.

He had a bright idea to make Germany a better place.

He convinced a bunch of other people that he really knew what he was talking about.

They could make a difference in the world if they joined up with him.

They could do something to make Germany a "better place".

Kill everyone who looks weird or different.

Also, if there are people who don't agree with what he was doing, kill them too.

In other words, even the biggest most well known world changing things couldn't be accomplished by just one person.

One person can't change the world all by themselves.

The only thing that could have stopped the Holocaust or the Rwanda genocide is for no one to agree with the lead guys' initial plan.

Everyone could have said, no, I'm sorry, I don't agree with that, not gonna kill those people. 

Then those awful things would have never taken place.

Instead everyone said, yeah you're right that would make this place much better if they were gone.

I wanna make a change and be a part of this, leave my mark on it somehow.

Because of their desire to make a change, together, they accomplished (most of) what they set out to do.

What would happen if the church said yes to each other like that?

What if we linked arms together and said "yes" to what Jesus asked us to do?

Imagine how much we could accomplish if we would just join together with one purpose and paved the way for the Lord's return?

Really, the main thing stopping the move of the Lord is the church itself. 

We decide to reject how other churches do their thing and call it bad instead of shoving our ridiculous religious ideas out of the way and listening to what Jesus actually says.

A world changer looks like someone who rejects their own flesh and their own ideas and clings to the Lord alone.

A world changer looks like someone who builds a platform under everyone but himself.

A world changer looks like someone who covers his brothers sins instead of exposing them to make himself look better.

A world changer is someone who sees through the eyes of the Lord instead of eyes of judgement.

A world changer isn't just set on being a world changer.

It comes naturally.

It comes with knowing who Jesus is and loving your brothers and sisters well.

It's not all about you

"For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak. And I know that His command is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever i speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak."

John 12:49-50

I remember one of the first staff meetings we had when I got back to HOPE from Texas. 

It was such a glorious relief to be back home and I was just so happy to be with my people again.

People that love and care for each other and long to know the Lord's heart in an intimate way.

Anyway, right around the time I was getting back, a small glimpse of some pretty awesome revival was breaking out. It was short lived, but amazing and refreshing, not to mention, only the beginning.

That Tuesday morning, we were sitting there talking about how to handle this move of God and how we should steward it well as leaders.

I remember one of my friends spoke up and I'll use his name because I know he won't care.

He said something like, "I just feel like this is gonna be different... It won't be like 'wow look what Jacob Crochet did in 2014' it will be 'wow, look what Jesus did in 2014.'"

Now that really isn't word-for-word because it was too long ago for me to remember it exactly, but that's definitely the part that stuck with me.

How often it goes through my mind, man it'll be cool when people look back and see what I did in that whole movement.

Really it has nothing to do with me.

We're going into a movement that requires a nameless and faceless people group.

A generation that doesn't look for man's praises (not that any of the other great revivalists were after that, this is just a completely different time in the earth.)

We can't be after big labels or after making our name great.

It literally has to be completely about Jesus. The glory is His in everything that happens.

I mean even Jesus didn't keep the glory for Himself when He spoke. Hence, the verse from John I put at the very beginning.

Jesus Himself didn't take the glory, He gave it all back to God which, in reality, was giving it to Himself........Weird, but awesome.

Still, He was humble and wise enough to keep His mouth shut when He knew fleshy words were gonna spill out.

Remember, Jesus was a human and had the exact same temptations that we have today.

I think sometimes people forget that.

Yes, He was perfect and never failed, but He absolutely went through every temptation that we do.

We just give in instead of going to the Father and resisting like Jesus did.

How do we become nameless and faceless like we're supposed to be?

We be like Jesus.

Which really is the answer to every question, but in this situation it is the ONLY answer.

Jesus wasn't about making Himself seem super awesome.
He wasn't like hey guys look how freakishly great I am at raising people from the dead.

Hey isn't it cool that I  know everything about people before they even tell me, cause well you know, I created them.

Isn't it neat that I was born from a virgin?

Yep, Jesus, that's the name, don't forget it!

He really wasn't about that.

He says He ONLY does what the Father does.

Meaning He doesn't do anything on His own.

Nor does He take all the credit for it.

He recognizes He's the Messiah and recognizes Himself as the King of Kings and knows who He is, but He still totally gave it all back to the Father. 

There's that fine like between being confident in who you are and being prideful and working for a title.

Lets just say, Jesus was a complete pro at keeping Himself from wavering on that fine line.

In fact, Jesus even built up other people.

He gave great titles to some pretty not so great people.

Thieves and one's He knew would betray His trust, prostitutes.

He built a platform under them just like He does for us.

He would tell them to take care of the problems sometimes because really He just wanted them to know they could do it.

That's a good servant, not your normal lady hostess running around cooking and cleaning everything. We get that whole "servant" thing really confused with busy-bodies.

Jesus was the perfect servant! Last time I checked, He was falling asleep on a ship in the middle of a storm, not freaking out trying to fix it, clean it, cook it all the time. The Guy knew how to rest!

All this to say...

Let's take our nameless faceless call seriously and glorify the Father.

It's really not about you!

What a relief.

The glory that we get from men is nothing like the rewards we'll receive from Jesus Christ Himself in the end.

Things that nobody sees you do...

People may not even know your name like you think they should.

But, guess what?

Jesus does, and He thinks what you do is completely amazing and will recognize it in front of everyone at the end of this life!

So for now, it's not for our glory at all.

He's the only one who deserves glory.

He is worthy!

Love is Bloody

My eyes were closed, Love Love Love was in the atmosphere.

You could swim in the thickness of His presence. 

I saw a stream first.

There was something different about this stream though.

Instead of water running over the rocks there was thick red blood.

This stream was a stream of Love that lead into an ocean of Love.

I started in the stream.

The Lion told me to lay down in it and let His blood flow over me.

At first I thought, really Lord? Isn't that kinda weird...

I listened anyway.

I laid down in this stream of blood and the warmth of it ran over my skin.

It painted my entire body crimson red.

I asked the Lord, why blood? Why not normal water?

Then I went on, isn't it kind of obvious Morgan?

Blood, the very liquid that saved your soul.

Blood, the liquid used to make the ultimate statement of LOVE.

Blood, the very liquid that gives you life.

(Blood, not a solid that's difficult to mold or a gas that disappears in a short amount of time, but a liquid. Liquid can be put into different shapes when confined in a container, but it can also run wild and free when not confined.)

He says, my Blood cleanses.
It washes off the dust of the world and unwanted baggage.

After laying in this Bloody Love stream for a while He asked me to take a big drink.

He says, consume my Blood and my Blood will run through your veins just like mine.
While this was happening I had a pretty realistic visual of what it would actually be like to drink blood.
I really am not trying to get into the whole creepy vampire thing or whatever, the Lord is just an out of the box Guy who likes to do out of the box things that offend people's religious mindsets.
If you actually think about drinking blood, it seems like it would naturally gag you and be extremely difficult to get through swallowing it.

Sounds a lot like love, huh?
A little hard to swallow.
It doesn't make sense for someone so perfect and Holy to actually love something other than Himself.

In reality He doesn't have to love us.
Really, He can go on existing without taking the time to love each and every human being.
This fact is daunting and makes us nervous sometimes.

It's hard to swallow such a perfect love when you know for a fact you don't deserve it.
It feels like it should be easy to lose, or it should be easily revoked.
Like at any moment you feel like He should just decide to kick you to the curb and say "if you don't quit messing up, I'm done with you."

Seriously, that makes so much more sense.

But He says that His love is, in fact, unconditional.
There's absolutely nothing you could do to make Him love you any more or less.

His love is so deep He offers you His blood.
He says drink my blood so you can become Me.
Reflect Me and my Father and partake of my inheritance.
Live like Kings and Queens forever.
You don't deserve it, but I do, and I want to share it with you!

I don't want to hold anything back from you.
I'm not gonna pull away from you when you do things wrong or fail Me.
I'm going to walk alongside you and exalt you even in your struggle.
I want to give you the nations as your inheritance.

Love is Bloody.
It's messy.
It's weird.
It's beyond comprehension.
It's the most beautiful thing ever imagined.
It's handed right to you.
It's literally always there, up for grabs at any moment.
Take the step.
Drink the Blood.
Eat His flesh.

Prove me, Refine me like Gold.

If I could count the amount of times I've wished God could give me a check list of things to do for me to be fixed.

Just give me a formula to perform to get better at being... better.

David talks about this in one of his psalms. It's actually one of the more raw and heart-throbbing psalms if you ask me.

"For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering...."

Psalm 51:16

Take anything. Anything dear to me, I don't care. Have my car, house, my MacBook, take it all, whatever makes me better and healed. Whatever will atone my treacherous actions and thoughts!

I desire nothing, but a pure and blameless heart before You, God.

The chapter continues to explain that the only sacrifice that God will accept is a broken spirit.

"The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart-- These, O, God, you will not despise." Psalm 51:17

I decided I didn't really know what contrite meant and that I shouldn't really quote things without knowing what they mean. If you're like me and had no clue, 

Contrite- feeling or expressing remorse or penitence; affected by guilt. Some of the synonyms are remorseful and repentant.

God never said that healing or the renewal of mind would be an easy process or that it would feel good.

Sometimes it just has to suck really bad and feel like someone is squeezing the squeezers out of your heart.

It's called pruning, refining, renewing.

He's saying your sacrifice is your humility. Your sacrifice is you being able to accept that you're wrong! The world isn't out to get you, but only you can control what you do and how you handle things.

It's a whole heaps and loads easier to blame everyone else for your problems, but more than 99% of the time it's not anybody's fault. 

Bad things happen.

They will! It's truly inevitable while we live on this fallen planet.

Some of the bad things don't have to happen though, a lot of times we end up getting stuck in situations that are unnecessary, but we have a good God and He likes to make our screw ups work out for really good things. 

He's saying, sacrifice the contentment of your heart and emotions. Let me dig in there and pull out all your idols. All your crutches that you use instead of me to help you along.

Give Me your comforters, give Me your secret dark pleasures, give Me whatever is stopping Me from getting deeper. Let Me love you and refine you so you can be My daughter with a whole spirit, mind and soul. 

GO THROUGH MY REFINING FIRE. 

Let His fire of truth free you and burn off the things that are keeping you bound up.

I really like what my Bible says in kinda summing up what that scripture is saying.

"The OT sacrificial system was not rejected. Rather the Law did not prescribe sacrifices for murder or adultery, sins which David had committed. For these presumptuous sins, the sinner could only cast himself on the mercy of God. The Lord accepts and forgives those who are honest with Him, who are humble before Him, and who recognize their dependence on His grace."

For Narnia!

So, I've been reading the Chronicles of Narnia series like it's about to be sold out forever and I'm never  gonna see the books again. I've always been one to super nerd over sci-fi stuff and hear from the Lord so much clearer in sci-fi movies and books than most things normal people hear the Lord in.

There's something about the supernatural/fantasy thing that gets me. All the low-key hidden allegorical messages, all the seriously passionate people or talking beasts.

The way crazy things happen, like hobbits saving Middle Earth or a lion being the creator of an entire world. We watch and go, "wow that's awesome, I wish I could do that." (well at least I do). Those things are extremely unrealistic, but we don't think about that fact when we watch it. We don't get mad about how fake it is or get upset that someone has the audacity to say a wizard in Lord of the Rings looks a lot like God in our world. We appreciate the story for what it is, no matter what kind of creature is used to portray the image. We watch and absorb. (just gotta be careful what you're watching and absorbing though, be smart!)

I got to wondering a thinking a lot while I've been reading Narnia... It says in Romans 12:2 " And do not be conformed to this world: but be transformed by the renewing of your mind..." 

 Now a lot of people use this verse to bash sinners and say "don't sin because it's worldy." This is true, but have we ever really taken the time to go deeper into what it actually means to be conformed to the world?

When I see a person who's conformed to the world it's not only sinners that I see. 

It's kinda like the Matrix. The Matrix tricks EVERYONE who doesn't have their eyes opened by truth into living in this wordly pattern that accomplishes nothing. Wake up, go to work, eat a few meals, go to bed, do it all over again.

What if I told you the Will of God is that we die to our flesh (daily routine, close minded thinking, no access to the heavens) and literally dwell with God every day for eternity. Some of Jesus' last words were "dwell with me in paradise" and the veil was torn. THE VEIL WAS TORN.

I believe that when Jesus and that one prisoner were hanging on their crosses and Jesus said "dwell with me in paradise", paradise had already begun for that man when he said "yes". He had the privilege of physically dying to his flesh next to Jesus Christ Himself, but coming to complete life in his spirit when he said "yes." I think this is a good picture of what it should be like when we receive salvation. We die to our flesh next to Jesus those 2000 years ago whenever we say "yes."

Flesh is limited to the earth. When you die to your flesh, you also die to those boundaries put on you by sin.

When He tore the veil, He literally tore the veil. It wasn't a joke or just something fancy to do so everyone would see how awesome and powerful He was.. He did it so nothing would hide us or keep us from getting right next to/inside of Him. 

We were created to experience both heaven and earth when we die to flesh.

Not only experience, but to reside in and hold citizenship in.

"Thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." -The Lord's Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13

Often used by people when thy don't really know what else to pray (which is wonderful).

Do you see what the Lord was saying there? He wants HEAVEN to be on EARTH.

We pray that all the time, but are we truly grasping what that looks like?

I'm chewing on all of this right now and asking the Lord to give me eyes to see theTruth and rid my mind of any religious strong-holds that hinder me from seeing truth because trust me, they're there!

Now it's time to seek this out and fall more in love with my creator! After all..."I think I'm quite ready for another adventure!" -Bilbo Baggins