According to the dictionary controversy means a dispute. It literally means to stand against. Whenever we have someone in opposition to us in any form we call that a controversy. Life has many controversies. We dispute bills we owe, or mistakes in bills. I went out to eat the day with my wife and we had pizza and a salad and when the bill came it was for seventy dollars. Needless to say I won that dispute. We have disputes politically over issues facing our nation. The recent healthcare reform bill has divided this country severely and the controversy is deepening. We have controversy morally as we debate issues that divide this land and eat away at the fiber of this nation. Abortion, same sex marriage, anti-God rhetoric, even to the recent ruling that having a National Day of Prayer is 'unconstitutional'.
Then there are those personal controversies when we have a fall-out with friends or family. Husbands stand against wives, children against parents, brother against sister, and best friend against best friend. Pastor against member, boss against employee, and so on it goes. Once I remember feeling as if everyone had a controversy against me. My wife was mad at me for buying something without her consent. My kids were mad at me, my employees were planning a mutiny, and my church was giving me all kinds of problems. I noticed even the dog didn't want anything to do with me.
I went to the Lord about it in tears and begged Him to change all of those people who were giving me such a problem. In my devotion time that morning I asked God to either change them and get them right or I was going to start calling fire down from heaven on all of them. As I finished my prayer I went to the Bible reading of the day. The reading happened to be Proverbs 16. As I read down the chapter I came to verses 6 & 7. "By mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the fear of the Lord men depart from evil. When a man's ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with Him."
Then there are those personal controversies when we have a fall-out with friends or family. Husbands stand against wives, children against parents, brother against sister, and best friend against best friend. Pastor against member, boss against employee, and so on it goes. Once I remember feeling as if everyone had a controversy against me. My wife was mad at me for buying something without her consent. My kids were mad at me, my employees were planning a mutiny, and my church was giving me all kinds of problems. I noticed even the dog didn't want anything to do with me.
I went to the Lord about it in tears and begged Him to change all of those people who were giving me such a problem. In my devotion time that morning I asked God to either change them and get them right or I was going to start calling fire down from heaven on all of them. As I finished my prayer I went to the Bible reading of the day. The reading happened to be Proverbs 16. As I read down the chapter I came to verses 6 & 7. "By mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the fear of the Lord men depart from evil. When a man's ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with Him."
I realized by the Holy Spirit that God was talking to me. That MY ways--my attitudes, my actions, my thoughts, my motives, and my words, were the problem. A man's ways consist of these five areas and without realizing it God was showing me that the problem was not them but me. He reminded me how He worked in the days of Israel, when they turned from His ways and turned unto their own, how He would stir up an enemy in order to get their attention so they would turn back to Him. To see this principle at work you can look at the end of 1 Chronicles 5 when it says about some tribes of Israel that they 'played the harlot'. What that means is they committed spiritual adultery against God and worshiped false gods. Then it say God "stirred" the spirit of the king of Assyria to carry them away captive.
This 'controversy' was of there own making. It came because their hearts got turned aside and they actually found themselves standing against God and His will. This may seem hard to swallow today because we are not bowing down to any wooden images or carvings out of stone. But our 'controversies' come in a different form. Ours come in an attitude that we know is contrary to the Spirit of Christ. It can be a thought process that is destructive and enslaving but we do not cast it down and take it captive. Not only do we feed it and make room for it but we justify and excuse it as if we have a good reason to think the way we do.
They come in words that are harsh, judgmental, and self-righteous. Words reveal so much about us and our condition. For out of the heart man speaks. Motives that are self-serving and impure are at the forefront of much controversy. And finally, in actions that are clearly un-christian and ungodly, yet we excuse them because after all--we are only human and God understands.
What it represents is a controversy--an area of our life that we have not surrendered up to Christ. Something that we are holding onto and refuse to let go. It is this very area that the Holy Spirit is asking you to surrender. Are you holding to something that is a point of contention between you and God? It may seem like a small thing but if allowed to go on small things become big and they can actually cause your heart to turn against God. It is called hardening your heart in the New Testament.
"Today if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.." Read the entire chapter in Hebrews three. It is a somber warning for you and I today and one we need to take seriously for ourselves and not pass off as this must be for someone else. I have been doing quite a bit of reading lately and one of the areas I have been looking at is the ministry of the Holy Spirit today in the life of the Church. He is really busy today in the ministry of what He does in us, in the Church, and in the world. He is such a awesome part of the Christian life. He has been given to us and resides INSIDE of us and has ONE desire. To reproduce the Life of Christ inside each of us.
Residing IN you is all the power, all the glory, and all the resources you need for a glorious, victorious life! Yet there is one catch--He must be given complete freedom in EVERY area of your life and you can hold nothing back from Him. For Him to reproduce the life of Christ in you He must be given complete CONTROL of your life and everything in it! Whatever you're holding back or whatever you are holding onto becomes an area of controversy that you must yield over to Him. He will NOT take it from you--you must lay it down and surrender it to His Lordship.
Let me share something very personal with you. There has been an area of my life that I have personally struggled with for years. It has to do with prayer. Not personal. private prayer. Not corporate or city-wide prayer. I have been a part of this kind of prayer for years and while I need more, it is not in this area that I struggle. It is in the simple yet powerful prayer of agreement with my wife and I.
As you know if you have followed any of my past blogs, I had a prodigal experience with God in 2004 till 2007. Much damage was done in my marriage as we nearly divorced and allowed alot of hurts to accumulate. Because Terri, my wife, is such a great person, she held onto God and to the idea of restoration even when I was doing everything I could to sabotage the relationship. Thanks to her prayers and the prayers of my daughter Cassie and her church family in Florida, and the prayers of Kerry Wilson and the VCC family, God brought me back from certain destruction. When I came back the Lord prompted me to start praying WITH my wife. Notice I said with and not for.
Intimacy needed to be rebuilt, our relationship needed healing. Normally marriages seldom survive all the junk we went through even with counseling. But I sensed the Lord telling me that until We talk to HIM about us there was no need to talk to anyone else. This is not to undermine the need or power of counseling, but to state that many people seek out counseling without seeking God and it is fruitless and futile to think that we can fix something without Divine intervention. So I went to my wife and shared with her what was on my heart and we began to get up early and pray together. Only I did not follow it through. I stopped before a week. Then I passively allowed the enemy to take that prompting and the obedience to it and remove me from it. Needless to say it allowed more inner pressure to build in our marriage until we just didn't think we could go on. So after months and months of neglect and simple disobedience built up I hit my face and cried out to God for an answer as to why things weren't working out. It occurred to me that this must be something very powerful and important for the enemy to work so hard to keep us from it.
Of course, He reminded me of His original prompting and let me know there would be no further word coming or help for that matter until I was obedient in the other. I have talked and talked to my wife over the past. I have made her many promises to do better, to be better, and to try harder. This time I dispensed with all the words and just began praying with her in the mornings for the last month. You become intimate with the people you pray for and the people you pray WITH. God over the last weeks has begun a deep and powerful work in our marriage. Walls are quietly and powerfully being removed. Anger and frustration is melting away and best of all LOVE is flowing from our hearts toward each other. Not to mention awesome answers to prayer as we agree for specific things. For example, our son, DAN, has been out of work for almost a year. He had put in some 70 applications for work. The first week we began praying together we devoted time to praying and agreeing for him a job. Within 5 days he was hired and is loving this job that God opened up for him! Praise God! In a few weeks he will be able to buy some of his own food and his own deodorant!
Seriously, I share this difficult aspect of my life for a reason. The enemy has designs against your life and home. Many a home is in deep distress today. Many individuals are in trouble within that home. Many are perplexed and troubled--seeking to talk to someone. Before you talk to anyone--talk to GOD! Prayer is the only hope for real and lasting change. God has a design for your life and home as well. We must get in agreement with Him and with each other--for if any TWO of you shall agree....as touching ANYTHING...it shall be done. I am done wanting my way, I am done with controversy because I choose to give up and give over to God! I choose to agree, I choose to obey! I choose YAWEH and not MY WAY! It is so simple yet so profound: PRAYER CHANGES THINGS because PRAYER CHANGES ME!
