I'M a Believer

Prophetic words are heard (most of the time) and processed through the filter of our minds. When that happens, we can create images of how we think things are going to happen. Also, when we hear a prophetic word, we think “immediately.”

Some of them do come to pass quickly, but my experience seems to indicate that they are fulfilled at later dates than we expect or want.

I received numerous prophecies in my late twenties that I did not see come to pass until I was in my fifties. Sometimes you almost give up on the words and think that the prophet missed it or you missed it. While I know that prophecy speaks to our potential, there is a component that when you are seeking Him, it will come to pass sometime.

Such are the words that have been spoken over the church for years. I believe that God has a purpose for the existence of every church. We are outposts of His kingdom, called out ones to his political party, ambassadors of His kingdom, who have a mandate for their very existence. When that purpose is violated, ignored, or strayed from, the church wanders and God waits for them to return to Him. When that happens, God can release the fulfillment of prophetic words and promises.

The River has had a calling and a destiny. The enemy has fought that destiny for decades. There have been and are many prophetic words to be fulfilled. And it is starting.

The words concerning being a hospital, a place where the wounded could be treated and healed is starting to come to pass. Last Sunday we baptized Jesse who came from a really dark place including demons that were pushing him to suicide. When he was born again, he began to tell others of his experience. In the matter of one week, his testimony has brought 2 or 3 others to salvation and baptism this coming Sunday. The Lord spoke to us and said they were coming, get ready. Well ready is now, not later. We are here. It is not down the road.

To hear the testimonies of a couple of young adults encourages me. Shawn Dawson spoke of the truth and that he was responding to the truth. Another young lady who will be baptized Sunday also responded in the same way. She commented that she did not know why she had not been baptized yet; but she now knows the truth and wants to obey the Lord. She is ready. This encourages me greatly that truth is reaching young adults and their response is not out of religion, but truth. They are responding, not because of family tradition, but truth.

Another prophetic word was that God was going to bring a lot of people back home. This is coming to pass as well. One of our men stated that they left because the church had left its calling, but he knew he would be back someday. That is today. Another couple left because the Holy Spirit was being limited and driven away. But they have come again and are plugging in. They are here. Numerous others have come and visited, taking a fresh look at what is happening.

To the church’s credit, you, the comments have been how well they have been received with love and genuine friendliness. 

This is just the beginning. Larry and Carolyn Lotz are desiring to return. They are just waiting on the sale of the lodge so they can move back. There are others who will come. We have a number of really good new families and young families coming. There is something going on and it is God fulfilling His word.

Do not give up on your prophetic words, they will come to pass in His timing. We all get discouraged and we all have had disappointments. We all have wanted things to happen more quickly or we have prayed to slow them down, but as we walk this life out, we find His hand to be more prevalent than we thought.

Twenty years to God is nothing. I received a number of prophecies in my twenties. All of them seemed fantastical, beyond what I thought could be done; and yet, here we are with so many of them fulfilled. Paul Smith once commented that here he and I were, two preachers with minimal income and traveling around the world. It has been amazing to see the provision made to carry the Gospel out to other places. We have made numerous trips and have touched thousands of lives. All fulfilling prophetic words spoken to us.

Now, we are standing in a place where there is a wave of fulfillment flowing our way. Me, I want to remain faithful to the vision God has given us as a church so we can keep the blessings flowing. There is no greater joy than seeing God do something that He said He was going to do. It makes you believe!

Talk to ME

I just started reading another book by Tom Brokaw. My brother gave me this one for Christmas. I had read his book, The Greatest Generation, a few years ago. In The Greatest Generation, he chronicles the stories of the World War II generation which is fast leaving the earth. So, he wanted their stories told, his father’s and mine’s generation.

In this book, The Time of Our Lives, he begins to explore the ideas which have changed rapidly and asks poignant questions regarding our country and our culture. Such questions as, “Have we lost our way?” And, “Who are we now as a nation?”

As I was reading the preface and the introductory questions were being asked, I thought to myself that the church and Christianity ought to be asking the same questions. One of the real questions for thought is the technological breakthroughs and inventions and how cyberspace is changing us, in fact, dramatically.

We are radically changing the way life is lived. When I first saw “texting” being advertised for cell phones, I thought, “Why text when you could just call?” But, it caught on and now we live in a texting world. We gave up writing letters and started using e-mail and now we have given up talking for texting.

What is amazing is that you can make a call to a person, particularly younger ones, and get no response. But, if in the next minute, you text; you will get a reply shortly. I think it has come to the place that we do not want to talk. The culture has dismissed civility and dispensed with the hello’s and how are you’s to cut directly to the terse point and counter point. We have further reduced the joy of the language to cryptic phonics to convey our message in as few key strokes or taps as possible. Yet, the communication has increased to the point that no one in the room is really connected to the folks in front of them; they are connected to anyone who texts them from anywhere in the world.

The ubiquitous smartphone lives in the hands of people. I know some that never put it down. They nap with phone in hand so the slightest vibration alerts them to the demand of the text. Young  people and adults live hunched over their phones as they punch out cryptic messages oblivious to their surroundings. The attention span of most people has been reduced to 160 characters.

Now, while saying all of this, I am one who enjoys the technology and uses it. However, my life is not a Facebook expose’. There are people who have ruined their lives thinking Facebook is a good forum to vent their feelings on or show pictures that may be compromising. Really!? Cyperbullies? Turn your computer off.

At Christmas, all the kids came in with their newest tablets, electronic I mean, and they were enjoying all the new apps and movies. I commented to them that this could be the first Christmas when the family gets together and no one talks to each other because they are engrossed in their own little cyber world. Well, they did not continue and we had a great time, but that one moment when I walked into the room, it was everyone hunched over their device in the own world while all were around.

“Techiness” is fun but not at the expense of human interaction, I mean a real human, flesh and blood. Avatars, screen names, fake personas, all are fantasies that mean a person never learns how to be anyone; they are adrift in a sea of zeros and ones.

The whole culture will have to re-discover the arts of human civility, privacy, diplomacy of conversation. The very fruit of the Holy Spirit is the essence of human interaction that appreciates and honors and builds the community.

As a church or Christianity, I think our challenge is a communal one. Will we continue to extol relationship where one faces the reality of sin, the reality of grace, and the transforming power of God? Can we use technologies in a way that is godly rather than ungodly. Each new thing comes to us in a fairly moral neutrality, but man perverts it and many times makes it’s use immoral.

The church is challenged to be a place where people can still relate human to human and human to God. We must not lose our way, lose focus, or fail to tell the age old story of redemption. We still have to touch people. The Gospel is not the cyber message; it is a message of human pathos as one human touches another with redemptive grace, making room for the Holy Spirit to bring new life through a new birth.

God Has No Grandkids

  “...there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord...Judges 2:10

  God has no grandchildren. Either you are a child of God or you are not. There is no generational guarantee. Even though the word expressly offers a benefit and definite opportunity, each one has to find their way to the foot of the cross.

Through the years I have heard people declare they have been Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist all their lives. They comment how their family is third generation Lutheran, or as far back as they can remember, their family was Catholic. Really, what has happened is the religion became a culture and not an experience with God. The problem with enculturation is that it carries all the outward appearances of reality; yet inside there is no transformation. Jesus made comment in very direct and even harsh was when he declared the most religious group to be white washed tombstones with dead men’s bones inside.

It is easy to take shots at formal religion and criticize the obvious formalities with little or no life in them. However, I would like to state that I have met people in all those traditions who have a vibrant relationship with Jesus. So, dead religion is a cultural phenomenon and can be found many places.

Even in Scripture we find the kings of Judah reflecting the see-saw commitment to God. One king serves the Lord and the next one serves Baal. Why? The Book of Judges tells of a generation that knew not the works of God. Why? Well, it is true, “God has no grandchildren.”

So, this brings me to my concern. The moves of God that took place in the 20th century including the Pentecostal revivals, the Latter Reign movement, and the Charismatic Renewal are fading in their impact. Probably all of the Pentecostal revivalists are gone, most of the Latter Reign folks are gone, and the Charismatic Renewal folks are aging. The families and churches that were impacted by those movements are now into their 2nd and 3rd generation of descendants.

Just in the short span of my life, I am watching churches close that once were power houses of the Spirit. Another one we know of closed in the Cleveland area. Many churches are on the verge of closing. Why? Other churches in an effort to survive are re-inventing themselves and morphing into something that does not even resemble their roots or the move that birthed them. Historic Pentecostal churches are moving to the middle of the road and relegating the Holy Spirit to the sidelines. One of the brothers told me that a Pentecostal church of some size has a special room for those who want to speak in tongues. So, if you feel you want to pray in tongues, you leave the service and go to a room designated for speaking in tongues. Wow, how the mighty have fallen. Another account was related to me that a historic Pentecostal church pastor in the Chicago area told his church, after a message in tongues, that would be the last of that display. There would be no more messages in tongues in that church. Wow, how the mighty have fallen.

But to bring it closer to home, we have children in our churches whose parents are spirit filled, love the Lord, pursue the things of God; yet their children do not know if they are born again, do not know of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, and generally are lost. There has been a disconnect between parents and their children spiritually.

One of the causes of the disconnect is the lack of emphasis and teaching on the responsibility of family, of parents and children, and fathers to their children.

The emphasis on separating kids from the flow of the Spirit has resulted in a lost, churched youth. While parents have been in services hearing the word of God and worshipping, kids have been shipped off to rooms for entertainment and baby sitting. Parents are abdicating their God-given responsibility. One of the hallmarks of the Charismatic Renewal was a renewal in family and parent-child relations. Homeschooling became important, discipline was meted out in godly fashion, kids were in service with their parents, a biblical approach to family was sought, these all were marks of a movement that was deeper than just a worship form.

There is a need to return to biblical standards. There is a need for the resurgence of godly fathers. There is need for parents who seek to follow the dictates of Scripture. Let’s not lose this generation. It is not too late to change, to turn.

P. Bill

Charismatic, Really?

Charismatic churches and Pentecostal Churches are becoming less charismatic and Pentecostal. Although I do not like the terms so much since they tend to pigeon hole people and churches and create stereotypical images in people’s minds; yet, these are the terms that have survived and are used.

By that I mean there is little opportunity for the gifts of the Spirit to operate in the body. There are several things that contribute to that I believe.

1. Through the last two decades, there has been an emphasis put on being marketable to the world. We have turned the church into a business that is marketing itself to the world through tried and true business methods. “The customer is always right” has translated into making services entertaining and timed. Most churches of any size have great worship teams with many instruments, singers, videos, and powerful sound systems. The lights are dimmed, the stage lights come up, and the videos play and lights flash. It is entertaining, effective. Many can enter into praise and personal worship can be enhanced. But in the midst of that, there is no room for the Holy Spirit to do much other than anointing the individual worshipper. 
2. Time: We have very closed ended services. For mega churches running multiple services one hour is max. Sing, teach, and move on. For modern America, one hour is all they can take of God. There are so many other things that we have to get to in the afternoon. Current wisdom says that people can only listen for 20 minutes. (Now I know I have listened to people that 20 minutes was too long) But really, what if there is an anointing to teach longer. We have narrowed down the time God can have. Yet, in third world countries 20 minutes is an insult, a testimony. They come for the word. They will stay all day.
3. No Waiting: The idea of waiting on the Lord makes people nervous. We have to every minute filled with sound, activity. For people to move in the gifts of the Spirit, it takes time, encouragement, stewarding. The uneasiness of silence grates the nerves of the impatient. There is a worry that God is not in the moment; yet, He often encourages us to be still and know that He is God. There is little room for the pall of holiness to grip us. Being open to the Spirit requires waiting.
4. Little or No Teaching: The work of the 5 fold ministry is to train others. The New Testament concepts are of a body of believers equipped for ministry. It is not an audience prepared for a concert, but a body equipped for battle. It takes time to teach people how to move in the Spirit, how to hear the voice of God, and a place of safety to share. You know I want a move of God that is peaceful, full of unity, and no goofiness. The only way to avoid the silliness and excesses are to teach people how to do it right and be able to judge the incorrect when it appears. The emphasis has been on the goofs and judging the stupidity that is out there. We have created an atmosphere of fear so people will not venture into the realm of the Spirit. They have fear of being wrong, making a fool of themselves, and the consequences if they make a mistake. Learning to minister in the gifts was meant for all, not a few. Yet, our times of worship are more geared to shut those things out than to include them.
5. Control: Often churches and their leaders are more worried about control and making sure things work the way they want them. True, we must shepherd the flock and protect them. Yet, the scripture indicates the flow of the Spirit and gifts operating in an orderly fashion. Orderly fashion is the operative term. This requires explaining, directing, shepherding the service in a way that allows the Holy Spirit to move, yet with a biblical order. The people of God need encouragement.
6. Kooks Loose: Everyone is afraid of the weird prophet, the strange person, or as so often depicted in movies and TV, the deranged antichrist figure. Rather than shutting all the good people off and allowing a strange person to have an outburst sporadically, we need to encourage the good and train these good people. It is amazing when we allow God to move in good people who have been trained and encouraged that the weird ones move on or are silenced by the approved. It is a poor excuse to close off the Holy Spirit because you are afraid of kooks. It is something like hiding the one talent because you were afraid.

Sadly many churches with charismatic roots or Pentecostal roots barely look like their forefathers. We have a younger generation that has grown up in these churches and do not have the Baptism in the Holy Spirit, let alone move in the gifts. There is a generation that watched their parents, sat in these powerful meetings, and yet they do not have the power.

What is going to happen is many of these former charismatic churches and Pentecostal churches will die or wane to the place they are ineffective. And then God will raise up a whole new generation of people to serve Him who are hungry for His power and are not satisfied with a little entertainment. It will be a generation that is radical, hungry, and going for it. They will once again pay the price of discipleship and sacrifice to have the presence of God and His power.

I am looking for this kind!

The New Web Address

Just so you know, the River of Life Website is www.theriver-butler.org.

The New Look

Everybody likes to change their style from time to time. We change our hair, we dress with a new style, we buy a upscale shoe style. Women will change their hair color or style dramatically. Why? To keep life interesting, to get out of a rut, to feel good about yourself are all good reasons.
Well, we are changing our website to be fresher, more interactive, up to date, have a calendar, make it easy to use. I am hoping we will all enjoy the new look and start using the site as a great communication tool.
So, scan through the pages, browse, look at pictures, stay tuned.
Welcome to the River's Edge Blog.
Pastor Bill