My buddy ‘Triple-P’ sent me this e-mail and told me that I could post this on my blog.

Just as the Apostle Paul had his Damascus Road experience, and had to choose the saints rather than the synagogue – the Lord rather than the Law – so also will every one of us come to the point in his or her existence where we are going to have to choose between the vision of God and the traditions of men.

I had to do this as a former Baptist, and am now in process of doing it as a former hardcore Pentecostal / Charismatic.

This is a journey all of us are on.

We have to decide if our Catholicness, our Pentecostalism, our Baptistness, or whatever background or comfort we find deep roots in, if those are more important to us than God is.

If we want to remain in the place of Abram’s birth and familiarity and family and comfort, that is certainly an option we may choose. But if we want the fullness of God, there will come a time when we are called to the place of Abraham’s destiny, a city whose builder and maker is God.

And this journey is thrust upon all of us. It comes by God’s plan, and happens to all of us according to his purpose, as we work our our OWN salvation with fear and trembling.

We have to ask ourselves: will we move when the cloud moves, and follow on into the promises of God in Canaan, and live out who he says WE are, and have what HE says we have, and live as HE says we live, and do what HE says we can do …

or will we sit stationary when the cloud moves, stay where it’s comfortable and familiar, just sit there between the world and the promise, continue to wander in our wilderness, and limit ourselves to being what the CHURCH says we are, doing only what the DENOMINATION thinks us capable of, have the desire and vision our FAMILY expects us to live up to, and end up living a 3-by-5 existence in an 8-by-10 picture frame?

I’m not trying to become a better Baptist.
I’m not trying to become a better Pentecostal.

I’ve tried the ways of man, and now am craving the purpose of God.

There is nothing wrong with being in a denomination, but the time comes when we decide whether the “it” is more important than the “Him”.

Triple-P, you have my prayers and support.

I went through this right at seven years ago when I decided that I had to leave the anxiety, paranoia, instability, hysteria, and ‘craziness’ of the Third Wave / Charismatic movement and ended up at a Spirit-filled Reformed church. It was for ’spiritual survival’ as I felt asphyxiated by all of this ’soaking’, ‘mega-destiny’, ‘manipulation’, and ‘micromanagement of God’ that was about to smother me to the point of feeling like I was about to spiritually die unless I did something.about it while people telling me that the place I was at was because God must angry at me and must hate me (no, they were angry at me and hated me and wanted so bad for God to believe it also). I also left a couple of Christian Internet groups and forums along the way because it seemed to parallel what I was seeing at church.

However, I did not revise, reconstruct, and emerge. Instead, I (and still in the process of) became transformed by the renewing of the mind, reformed in the Faith, and more stable in what I believe.

The first step is the hardest step to take, but it is also the most crucial step that has to be taken because this step actually determines where you go and will eventually end up at. You will not find that direction trying to find your ‘purpose’. You will not find that direction on a ranch trying to be ‘Wild At Heart’. You will not find that direction when you send in $66 dollars for 12 months to get a Psalms 66:12 blessing. You will not find that direction blowing shofars, waving flags, or singing ‘metaphorically metaphysical’ worship songs.

There is one place you will find the navigation you need for direction, the Heart of God via times in prayer and times of reading the Bible.

And I know why we need it, and it is a word that many within the Pentecostal / Charismatic / Third Wave circles do not like to hear….

Stability

Yes, we need it and deep down we want it and to an extent, there is really nothing wrong with it. I know it smacks contrary to what is commonly taught in the Pentecostal / Charismatic / Third Wave circles where stability is equated to stagnation which is equated to God leaving you and passing us by. In fact, we expect ourselves to be constantly moving because not ‘moving’ is seen as ‘not growing’. However, there are times where by stopping and not moving, we actually grow stronger and more mature as we learn more and more about the sufficient Grace of God that is actually working in the midst of circumstances even when we do not realize that this is happening.

Even more intriguing was when stability was seen via the logic of

Satisfaction and contentment of where you are at to the point of God leaving you (because He’s always on the move and therefore we need to be moving also) and because God has left you, Satan has no reason to attack you because you are doing what Satan wants instead of what God wants.

It’s perfectly ok to want to feel a sense of stability, a sense of security, a sense of protection, a sense of confidence, a sense of wholeness, a sense of sanity, and a sense of a firm foundation. Really, it’s okay to want that and it is okay to even pray for it.

It’s weird that in Pentecostal / Charismatic / Third Wave circles, the quest for stability, security, and stopping to ’smell the roses’ is seen as instability within the Christian walk or an act of being mentally unstable. I now find it bizarre that the issue of salvation in Pentecostal / Charismatic / Third Wave circles is treated with the same mentality where stability is seen as losing salvation (God left you and Satan now has you where he wants you) and restlessness, chaos, confusion is seen as working out your salvation.

To my buddy ‘Triple-P’, I say, go onward, forward, and toward… Do not be afraid to stay still for a time in order to pray to God and search diligently the Scriptures for the stability that you want and also need at this time in your life. God loves you and wants the best for you and the ‘future Mrs. Triple-P’. God will lead you, guide you, and protect you for the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord.

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”
Matthew 7: (NKJV)