Let YOUR NAME be magnified in us -a letter from a journal

Christianity can be condensed into four words: Admit, Submit, Commit and Transmit. -Samuel Wilberforce

Beloved Brothers And Sisters ~

As I was just rushing to pick up Julian from school, I began to feel the hunger in the people as I passed by person after person in their cars and in the streets. And as I looked at each person passing by, God began to form my thoughts and I could feel His Anger rising as He let me realize that their stomachs would most likely be fed by the hands of the enemy rather than the hands of the servants of God… God was revealing to me the deprivation and emptiness in people, and in that moment I began to pray,“Jesus… feed Your People. Show us how to be the answer, how to HAVE the Answer; how to SPREAD Truth…” And in the midst of all the hustling to pick up Julian on time from school, God was giving me a disturbing vision of our church (the Church in general) – Outwardly welcoming yet inwardly barred shut…

I began to feel the weight of God’s Problem with the Church settle in the pit of my stomach as I realized that God’s Church has become completely IRRELEVANT. In fact, it seems like a breathing hypocrisy… I was smacked in the face with the disturbing REALITY as I ran from my parked car the rest of the way to school to meet Julian on time… Churches outwardly welcoming yet inwardly barred shut! In me Jesus was crying, “I AM ALIVE!” yet the hearts of His People are barred shut, the window to their souls locked and church parking lots empty. Looks pretty dead to me! I felt sick as I realized that God is filling the Church with His SPIRIT and asking us to go feed His People with TRUTH, LIFE, LOVE, WISDOM, DIRECTION and POWER, yet the doors are barred shut and the windows are dark and closed…

So when the woman ready to commit suicide wants to reach her hand out one last time, who will be the one to fill it? The enemy seems to have a better grasp on relevant ministry than we do. I think something in the way we view CHURCH needs to shift DRASTICALLY and IMMEDIATELY… If we have the HIGHEST, MOST HOLY, OMINISCIENT, OMNIPOTENT, SPIRIT as our GUIDE, why aren’t we offering a Spiritual hand of guidance to the hungry and the needy? Are we asleep? Are we numb? Are we hypocrites? Why put a WELCOME sign on the door to the Church (so to speak) if we are going to bar up the entire porch so that the dirty hands of the homeless won’t be able to touch it and mess up the new paint job?

Now with Julian in tow and after sharing this with him, he looked at me and said, “What if we could feed the spirit of each person by whispering the name of Jesus as we walk by each one. Maybe their spirits would grab His Name and begin to long for Him…” For the rest of the walk back to the car Julian said, “JESUS” as he passed each person. I laughed as I realized my little guy is just as OBSESSED with spreading the LOVE of God as I am! Truly a moment when God was speaking wisdom through and out of the mouth of babes!

God, help us. Wake us. Show us the way to invade the spiritual powers of this culture. Let the Church become RELEVANT. Let the Living God truly explode with LIFE out of the servants who have chosen to be the hands and feet of Jesus… Let us have RELEVANT FAITH so that those who are hungry will be able to GRAB onto it…

God, we pray that Your FAITHFULNESS will fill us with FAITH to step toward the desires you have for our lives. Give us a CAUSE to fight for YOUR NAME. Let the history of Your VICTORY in our lives be on our lips daily as we face the giants. Let YOUR NAME be magnified in us ,as Your Servants choose to fulfill the vows and covenants we made with YOU… to KNOW YOU… In Your Holy and Precious Name Jesus we pray… Amein… (shared of my journal)

JILL SOTO JULY 4 2014-from fb

·