Pride is the killer of all things that God wants to do in and through us. It is very deceptive and is the one fleshly vice that can appear and feel righteous because in a christian it makes morality king… not Jesus. I hope this challenges you as much as it did me.

The Christians are right: it is Pride which has been the chief cause of misery in every nation and every family since the world began. Other vices may sometimes bring people together: you may find good fellowship and jokes and friendliness among drunken people or unchaste people. But Pride always means enmity-it is enmity. And not only enmity between man and man, but enmity to God.

In God you come up against something which is in every respect immeasurably superior to yourself. Unless you know God as that-and, therefore, know yourself as nothing in comparison- you do not know God at all. As long as you are proud you cannot know God. A proud man is always looking down on things and people: and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you.

That raises a terrible question. How is it that people who are quite obviously eaten up with Pride can say they believe in God and appear to themselves very religious? I am afraid it means they are worshiping an imaginary God. They theoretically admit themselves to be nothing in the presence of this phantom God, but are really all the time imagining how He approves of them and thinks them far better than ordinary people: that is, they pay a pennyworth of imaginary humility to Him and get out of it a pound’s worth of Pride towards their fellow-men. I suppose it was of those people Christ was thinking when He said that some would preach about Him and cast out devils in His name, only to be told at the end of the world that He had never known them. And any of us may at any moment be in this death-trap.

Luckily, we have a test. Whenever we find that our religious life is making us feel that we are good-above all, that we are better than someone else-I think we may be sure that we are being acted on, not by God, but by the devil. The real test of being in the presence of God is that you either forget about yourself altogether or see yourself as a small, dirty object. It is better to forget about yourself altogether.

It is a terrible thing that the worst of all the vices can smuggle itself into the very center of our religious life. But you can see why. The other, and less bad, vices come from the devil working on us through our animal nature. But this does not come through our animal nature at all It comes direct from Hell. It is purely spiritual: consequently it is far more subtle and deadly. For the same reason, Pride can often be used to beat down the simpler vices. Teachers, in fact, often appeal to a boy’s Pride, or, as they call it, his self-respect, to make him behave decently: many a man has overcome cowardice, or lust, or ill-temper by learning to think that they are beneath his dignity-that is, by Pride. The devil laughs. He is perfectly content to see you becoming chaste and brave and self-controlled provided, all the time, he is setting up in you the Dictatorship of Pride-just as he would be quite content to see your chilblains (similar to frostbite) cured if he was allowed, in return, to give you cancer. For Pride is spiritual cancer: it eats up the very possibility of love, or contentment, or even common sense.

I was so wrong… both in my discernment for this person’s demeanor and where they hoped to go in their ministry.

Instead of being met with a grateful heart and a relieved spirit, I was met with a fire and passion I had not recognized before. As anyone who knows me would guess, I combated fire with fire for a bit because I always drift to a “might is right” mentality. Somewhere in the midst of the heat something was said that God used to really get my attention.

Him: “I need this!”

Me: “… huh??? You need what?”

“I need this type of access to you so I can see your passion and hear the fire in your voice and know you are fighting for me.” … Oh, here we go, I thought. You see, the person I was talking to didn’t report directly to me. Our organizational structure was such that this person’s leader reported to me so it would be rare that direction would be coming directly from me. So, my instant reaction was that this person was angling to get around their leader.

Again, I was wrong.

This person was simply trying to express the occasional need that he and his peers have to receive vision cast and questions answered from someone who is closer to the epicenter of the vision. The guy explained that his leader was doing a great job, but he felt that as information was past down the chain of command something was lost. After much discussion the thing that was being lost was not correct information and it wasn’t vision dilution. It was simply access to the thoughts, heart and passion of his leader’s leader. Not direct access all the time, but occasional access to feel the temperature of the fire that was burning in me.

Wow! That conversation flattened me. I thought I was doing everything right as a leader. I followed the chain of command and avoided cutting the leadership legs out from under the guys that report to me and I casted clear vision and direction so that they were equipped to lead their teams. All those things I had apparently done well, but I was falling short in noticing the importance of this type of access that would increase the health of our organization.

As I processed all of this I realized that I should have caught onto this concept much earlier. You see, my leader, Perry Noble sets a great example in this area. I don’t know if he would call what he does providing access, but he leads a monthly all staff meeting where his passion and vision are clearly seen and heard by everyone on our staff. Also, almost every week he takes a group from our staff to lunch to ask and answer questions. He even builds time into his busy schedule each week to simply walk around the office and to talk with as many people as he can. He creates avenues of access for his extended team (the whole staff) and at the same time is able to learn from those who are involved in the specific ministries of our church.

Why wouldn’t that principle apply to me? Why wouldn’t I make it a point to have monthly meetings with my extended team and be more intentional about lunches and striking up conversations around the office?

One reason I think that I haven’t seen this need is that I sit as close as is possible to the epicenter of our vision. I have lost sight of how I might feel if I was removed from my current position. Just as this person understood, I would not expect Perry to be available to me all the time. I would understand the need for an organizational hierarchy and the efficiency it creates. But, I would also have a need to feel like I have voice and that I am a part of the bigger team… not just someone who carries out a necessary function.

So, I owe a major thank you to someone who was willing to “lead up” and remind me that as a leader, I need to be sensitive to everyone’s need for access. Not access that circumvents the structure or the vision… but access that clears up communication gaps, clarifies vision, gives everyone’s voice a place to be heard and makes me a better leader.

The number one challenge for NewSpring Church (not to mention all churches, groups and organizations) is finding leaders. We want to grow and grow in the right way, but without passionate and competent leaders the effort is stunted. It is difficult, at best, to find a leader. Not just someone who has led something, but a true leader. Real leaders can be hard to find because some without the gift have mastered the art of mimicking it. It is when those who mimic the gift are placed in the fire (especially the fire of ministry) they are exposed and unfortunately the wake of destruction they leave is usually wide.

So, how does one distinguish a leader from a pretender? I don’t know for sure, but here are a few thoughts I have in regards to the qualities that should be found in a real leader.

A real leader…

• looks to get involved in solving problems instead of running from them.
• defends his team first before making excuses for himself.
• rejects offers to leave his team for the sake of personal advancement.
• knows when he is placing a lid on the ones he leads and is quick to get out of their way.
• inspires those he leads with his commitment, care, attitude and effort… and then his words… if necessary.
• is followed.
• speaks truth in love and never forsakes the vision or lowers the bar.
• inspires growth without demanding it from those he leads.
• is one his people want to be around and not one they dread seeing.
• has a desire to be led and not left alone.
• realizes that he is a part of the team… not above or better than the team.
• encourages and invites critique of his abilities from the ones he leads.
• sees defeat as a learning experience and not the end of the world.
• stays calm in the midst of calamity and does his best leading when the times are the toughest.
• doesn’t make decisions by looking at popular opinion or traditional values.
• challenges the status quo and risks his reputation to do so… not for notoriety or gain, but because its the right thing to do.

Just a few thoughts of my own…. I’d love to hear what you believe to be the qualities of a real leader.

Philippians 3: 7-11
But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Do I…

fast, give and pray with consistency in hopes of seeing Jesus more clearly or to be a obedient Christian?

see my life as Christ and death as gain?

I’ll end by asking the same questions I asked at the end of the “Motives” post… quoting myself… pride at a HNL or transparency with my struggle? I have rephrased it, however, in the first person.

If my heart could be opened up and inside I could actually see a physical representation of all that is in it… what would I find at the center? What would occupy the most space? Would I find Jesus there or would I have to move a lot of other stuff or people out of the way to then find him shoved into a small corner? Only I… and God… know the answer to that question.

When our circumstances get tough we have only two options… we can be refined or we can run. We can seek relief from the pressure or we can persevere through the pressure. We can give up or we can give it all we got.

Here’s the dilemma for me… my flesh wants to run, but the Spirit wants to bask in it. When the heat rises my head tells me to move away, but somewhere in my soul I feel like this is something I need to walk through.

Vince Lombardi once said, “The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.” I believe he is correct… but is there a tangible way to distinguish between my will and God’s Spirit? Does this even matter?

God’s word says that “everything that does not come from faith is sin” and because that is true there must be times where I can “gut” through something really tough, but actually be in sin. In contrast, there will be times that I will want to run but even against my own will I will stay in the fire and make it through only because God carried me through it… literally against my own efforts to run. That is what I take from Philippians 2: 12-13:

Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.

At the end of these thoughts I’m left with the truth that God wants me to persevere even in the toughest of situations because that is what Jesus did for me. My only gauge to know whether I have persevered in sin or as a saint is to check the condition of my heart once the trial has passed…

1 Peter 1:6-7
In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

… am I feeling better about myself or am I marveling at how awesome Jesus is?

My personal history reminds me that when I have survived by the efforts of my flesh I should expect that a similar trial is on its way… because God will not allow me to steal what He is trying to give me.

My first visit to NewSpring was a result of hearing the pastor of the church I was attending say something derogatory about this “church in town”. Being one who was full of pride (I didn’t really know this at the time, but in hindsight I do now) based on knowing all about God and the bible, I felt it my duty to evaluate the place and then heap my own, well informed, condemnation on this “church in town”. I mean, it was my responsibility to protect God’s good name, so it was something I had to do.

Needless to say, that first visit didn’t leave me with chest stuck out and my nose in the air… God used that first visit to break my heart with His truth and instead I found my head in my hands and tears flowing from my eyes. That was the first time I had ever seen Perry Noble or heard him teach. I went into the church looking for any out of line syllable and was met with the force of Truth - the whole Truth - taught in a practical way.

Fast forward five years and here I sit not as one who has seen or heard Perry preach a couple of times but as one who literally lives life with the guy. He first became my pastor, then my friend, then the one who asked me leap into ministry full time and be a part of what God was doing at NewSpring.

Over the last few years I have seen Perry verbally attacked in just about every way imaginable. Today if his name or NewSpring’s appears in a blog post, newspaper article, tv news story, radio talk show or even a casual conversation… everyone has an opinion… some of them very negative… some even go beyond questioning the ministry and actually question the man… his motives and his methods… some even dig into his personal life… I have yet to see one of these negative comments come from someone who actually knows Perry.

I know him. I have been with Perry when things are great and when things are really bad. I have seen him preach in front of thousands and I have seen him lying on a gurney very close to death. I have helped him plan amazing church services and I have talked with him about a staff person who’s hurting. I have laughed with him over the silliest things and I have wept with him over the most important things. I have seen him battle demons and I have watched him hold his daughter like nothing else matters in the world. I have argued with him and I have held his hand in prayer. I have seen the inside of his bible (which is cluttered from so much time spent in it) and I have seen his heart broken over idle words said or printed that are lies about him. I have been with him as he patiently talks to people who approach him at the most inappropriate times and I have heard his vision and passion for people to know Jesus when it was just the two of us. I have watched him give away his time and resources to all sorts of people (including church planters) and I have felt his hurt when those same people take advantage of his kindness.

I could go on and on… but the bottom line is… I know him… do you?

There seem to be too many people who claim to know Jesus that want to spend most of their time in the seat of scoffers. And my primary concern for those who sit in the scoffers seat and cast hate toward this man I know… is that I’m afraid that they are just proving that they don’t know Him. Oh, just to be clear… I don’t mean that the scoffers don’t know Perry… I’m afraid they don’t know Jesus. My fear is that their hate toward a man they don’t know is just evidence that they don’t know a Man they can know.

I Corinthians 8:1-2
But while knowledge makes us feel important, it is love that strengthens the church. Anyone who claims to know all the answers doesn’t really know very much. But the person who loves God is the one whom God recognizes.

I John 2:9-11
Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him.

So, I pray that the haters out there will remove their focus from the person they don’t know and probably never will and begin to focus on the One who they can know. Then we all can rejoice together and marvel at what God is doing in the lives of those who need Him.

I have received many questions in regards to the phrase, “lead her away from the curse”. What does that mean? What curse? The following is an attempt to explain the wisdom that a friend shared with me:

Genesis 3:16
To the woman he said,
“I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing;
with pain you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband,
and he will rule over you.”

This whole verse is the curse. The specific part to which I’m referring is the second part, “Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.” Shouldn’t a woman desire her husband? On the surface that seems appropriate and good. The only problem with that is that God is calling it a curse. So, this desire is something different from a holy desire that a woman should have for her husband… instead, it’s a manipulative, controlling and insecure desire to possess a man and either make him her slave (to worship her) or her idol (for her to worship). So a guy who allows a relationship in which he is the primary desire of the woman has not “led her away from the curse”.

A guy will be naturally be drawn to the outworking of this curse… I mean any guy will love the “he will rule over you” part. But, the man’s responsibility in a relationship should be to point the woman to Jesus… not himself and if he isn’t careful he will place himself in the position in which only Jesus belongs. If that happens, then a woman will be drawn further into the ills of that curse and that plays right into the very thing that appeals to a man. He can get what he wants. Because a woman who wants to own a man and makes him her primary desire will fall under his rule and then do whatever it takes to keep him… potentially to the extreme of giving up her body.

To complicate matters (as if a curse from God isn’t enough) most guys battle low self esteem and high levels of insecurity. So a guy who isn’t conscientious about leading a lady away from the curse will easily start to seek power over her. What I have seen is that a man who flirts with any girl that catches his eye isn’t really seeking affection as much as he is seeking power. This is to combat what he lacks in his view of himself. Even a guy with good intentions will be drawn into the curse and actually start to enable it because the lure of power is strong. That is multiplied when that lure is on the lips of a girl who, because of the curse, will make him her ultimate desire.

Practically, for a guy this would mean he needs to measure every word and he needs to be bluntly honest all the time. He must expect that a lady is a victim of the curse and know he can make it worse… or better. A guy can be a stumbling block by simply being passive and allowing the lady to do what she will do naturally, place her desire for the man above her desire for Jesus. Even on a date, a man should be measuring his every word to make sure he’s not placing himself in Jesus’ place and thereby leading the lady toward the curse instead of away from it. Because, if he views himself as desirable to the lady he may not place forth the effort necessary to serve her and conversely, if he has too low of a view of himself, he will say and do things to sweep a girl off her feet. Either way he ends up leading them both further into the curse and misses out on an opportunity to actually get to know who she really is by focusing on her character.

There you have it… I hope this helps.

Lee McDerment recently asked me a question that I had never been asked before. The question was phrased something like this, “what is your take is on intercession and how does that affect your prayer life?” What followed was a great discussion on the subject that challenged us both in how we pray for other people. Not just how often we pray for others but literally how we pray for them… the words we use and the action we may need to take as a result of our prayers.

Two verses come to mind in regards to intercession:

Romans 8:25-27
But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.

Hebrews 7:25
Therefore he (Jesus) is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.

Here we have examples set for us by the two most important people in our daily lives. Jesus and the Holy Spirit. One who we follow and the other is who equips us to do so. They intercede… all the time… and if we are being conformed into the image of God’s son then so should our prayer lives.

What can we glean from these verses? First, in some way intercession is about praying something for someone that they don’t even know that they themselves need to pray for. This verse tells us that even as we pray for ourselves that the Holy Spirit steps in and offers to God what he really knows we need. The second is that Jesus’ current existence in someway includes a continual interceding for me to complete the salvation process that started before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:3-8). He started the process by taking action. He left heaven to come to earth and do what he did to buy my salvation for me because I had no way to get it for myself. He was and still is an active participator in the very thing he is praying for me. WOW!

So, if I’m tracking in the right direction… my prayer life should consist of very regular prayer for other people that is focused on things they don’t know they need and I should ask God what role I need to play in making those prayers a reality in that persons life.

If this is true then the idea of asking God to “bless” someone and then just watching to see what happens in their life isn’t good enough. Its passive and weak prayer, which doesn’t seem to be the example set for me. If this is true and the example is that both the Holy Spirit and Jesus are in this state of prayer continuously then a journal full of self focused prayers may be a journal of pride instead of prayer. (I’m not saying that we don’t ever ask and beg God on our own behalf, but if we have a pattern of prayer where intercession is not present, I’m afraid we’re missing out on the real power of prayer and the blessing of “loving others before ourselves”.)

Romans 1:8-12
First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God’s will I may now at last succeed in coming to you. For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you— that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine.

Paul, too, seems to follow this idea of prayer. In this letter he is telling them that he is praying and he wants to get to them to “impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you”. There is something beyond just a prayer that Paul wants to offer these people. He wants to do something for them that they can’t do for themselves. He wants to get involved, literally, in God’s answer to their needs.

The challenge for me is to take a look at where I am in regards to following Jesus in my prayer life. I keep a daily prayer journal so I can look back and see where I am. In addition to praying I need to take action in the lives of others to participate - in whatever way God directs me - in seeing those prayers answered. For some reason I just believe that if I can take my focus off myself and place it upon others and then do something to participate in what God wants to do in their life then I’ll be more like Jesus. That is the example he set… and is still setting.

If I am on the right track in regards to this idea of intercession and I pursue it by putting others needs before my own, then wouldn’t I necessarily become more like Jesus? And if I become more like Jesus and I start praying for and participating in the answer to other peoples prayers, I believe that I’ll be growing closer to the heart of the Father and I bet I’ll start to see the changes or blessings or growth or provision in my own life happen… The ones I used to spend all my time praying for.