I don't know about you, but I have always been frustrated by men who show us our need, but do not give us a clear solution to change it.
We recently wrote on a vision in which the Lord showed us thousands of chariots that represented the opposition the enemy has raised up against us.
He then revealed a truth by saying, "I have a specific man or woman who is chosen and anointed to face each area of opposition the enemy raises up.
But, my children want to send the same man and anointing against the differing chariots, and it will not work.
This is why my children are so frustrated.
Learn to discern who it is I have raised up for each task and you will begin to experience continual victory.
" Our tendency to think that the same method we used last time to defeat the enemy will work this time, is one of the "faulty filters" the Lord wants to remove from our hearts.
Yet, this will not be easy.
We love the familiar and well known.
In fact, our almost fanatical allegiance to the familiar and traditional is often beyond reason.
We will stay with that which we know, even when it is no longer working, and we will do it for decades on end.
How many churches, movements and denominations, do you know that are in decline yet will not change how they have always done things? Is it not also true of our personal lives? We love the routine and the well known.
Sadly, it is well documented that women who are in an abusive relationship will tend to always choose someone who is abusive no matter how many times they start fresh.
Yet we know to change for change sake is just as dangerous.
How many ministries do we also know that are constantly changing what and how they do things? Their people become just as addicted to the new and novel as some do to the old and traditional.
Like all things of God, there is a precious and delicate balance to that which is of God.
I am thinking of having a seminar and calling it, "Why Our Methods Will Not Work for You.
" I am being facetious of course.
For people do not come to seminars to hear what will not work.
They come because they believe you have something that they need.
In truth, the first thing we should look for is clear Biblical direction.
Do you know what the charge for such a seminar should be? What price would you pay to hear accurately from the Lord? Well, here is what we will have to do: we will have to invent a technical device that can measure "levels of frustration," and that would be the first step of entrance into this seminar.
An applicant for this seminar would step into a booth, we would turn the device on and we would measure their level of frustration.
Not until the meter reads, "I am so frustrated that I am ready to lay everything aside to wait upon the Lord, and I am also ready to obey when He speaks," would we allow them to then pay the fee to enter.
You may think that this is too simple.
Yet, I cannot tell you how many men and women of God I have counseled who were very frustrated, but not frustrated enough to abandon all to seek the Lord.
Oh, they all have thought they were seeking Him, but they were only fooling themselves.
I wish I did have the "frustration meter" I was talking about.
For one of the readings on this meter would read, "They are not yet frustrated enough; leave them alone until they are.
" One of the reasons I know this so well is not only from the hundreds of ministers I have counseled, but from personal experience as well.
The definition of frustration is as follows: frustration - 1.
frustrating of somebody or something: an act or instance of causing somebody or something to be dissatisfied or unfulfilled 2.
something that thwarts: something that blocks, thwarts, and upsets somebody all at the same time His lack of ambition was a frustration to his father.
3.
dissatisfaction: a feeling of disappointment, exasperation, or weariness caused by aims being thwarted or desires unsatisfied Microsoft® Encarta® Reference Library 2003.
© 1993-2002 Microsoft Corporation.
All rights reserved.
In 1986 I was pasturing in Romulus Michigan and had built a new Sanctuary and Family Life Center.
Attendance was growing and our Christian school was doing well, but, I was growing more and more frustrated.
Yet, I was not frustrated enough to change.
As a matter of fact I was on such a treadmill that I could not, in that environment, break from the routine I was trapped in.
Part of the reason for my inability to change was that the people had been trained in such a way that they were too dependent on their Pastor.
As long as I worked 12 to 14 hours a day the church could maintain, but if I let up even for a minute we would begin to decline.
Over the years the hard work and the number of hours began to slowly erode my time to seek the Lord.
I was on a never-ending treadmill of ministering to the urgent rather than the essential.
As a result of all this the Lord moved me to a place where I had nothing to do but seek His face.
This was the greatest thing the Lord could have done for me.
I was not "promoted to a better Church.
" I was sent to a Church that was dysfunctional and in great decline.
For the next three months I had very little to do but pray.
It was during this season I heard the Lord say these wonderful words, "You must change how you do ministry if you want to accomplish what I have for you to do.
" Dear one, shall we pray that God will continue to allow us to be frustrated? Shall we ask for "divine discontent??" Shall we ask Him to increase the pressure until we get off the treadmill and hear only from Him? I tell you this - this is the only thing that will stop the frustration! Jer 29:13-14 13 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.
14 I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back from your captivity; I tell you another thing; I did change how I did ministry, and the last twenty years of ministry have been like heaven on earth.
When I told my congregation I was going to get off the treadmill of constant running in ministry and seek the face of the Lord, they stood to their feet and applauded.
From that day forward we have experienced a near constant ability to receive clear and precise direction from our precious Lord.
His word to us in Revelation has been our constant experience as we have gone daily to the door and let Him in.
He always brings with Him something special to show me as well as something refreshing to tell me.
He will do the same for you!