Mike Paschall . com

Have you ever noticed that there are people in this world that have a really difficult time saying the words “I am sorry”?  It’s like their tongue just got hammered with Novocain.

Patti and I have been really close to people in our past, who absolutely would not say those words.  If we asked them for forgiveness, repented, apologized or said “I’m sorry”, they would always be very accommodating and extend grace.  But, we would never hear them chime-in to own their own offense if we had gotten clobbered in an altercation.  We have known them for what seems like a really long time and never once did we hear those weighted and healing words:  “I am sorry”.  In fact, we totally gave up on the expectation all together.

What is that?  We know this is elementary and foundational RED LETTER verbiage from the Lord: “Therefore if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother (or sister) has something against you…” Shinola!  Wish that wasn’t in there, but it is.  Anyone who wounds another knows that they have to go get it right or they set a course aflame that isn’t good for anyone, mostly themselves.  As Michael Hindes taught at the last TWR training camp and I have since treated the topic two times in my church in Texas, an un-dealt-with offense or internal wound has horrible DNA in them.  Simply put, forgiveness is my responsibility once I’ve been wounded.  But what we often fail to recognize, there is a really good chance that while we were being offended, we were like-wise offending in the process.  As much as we would like to think that we are the innocent victim, the reality of that might be our own wounded illusion.  Hmmmmm.   Few of us can take stinging feedback or a rebuke without hitting back with some kind of lethal counter-punch of our own.  Once the dust settles, that means that I have more work  to do than just offer forgiveness when I am asked for it.  I must also ask for forgiveness and say “I am sorry!”  And it really helps us if we can say the words “I am sorry” without offering the traditional “BUT” at the end of it.  That is our attempt to justify why we held on to the offense or wound in the first place.  When we add the “but”, it removes some of the healing balm in the equation and we move back to a more self-centered focus again.  Usually, it pitches the boat towards the suggestion that you do not mean what you say in the first place.

What are the key components on why is it so hard for us to say “I am sorry”?

The big winner is usually PRIDE.  (ewwww!) If you hang out in Proverbs and allow Lady Wisdom to have her say about it, you’ll shudder with chilling awareness that God absolutely despises pride and He deals with it harshly.  Another is a spirit of REJECTION (it also deserves a big round of:  ewwwww!) We get so consumed with our own hurt, our pain, our sting, our offense, our self…that we really do not even process the fact that we probably have a dog in the fight.  Maybe you offered another person  honest and helpful truth, trying to do the right thing, but you mishandled the delivery and your passion got the better of you.  Then, you pretty much jacked up the whole situation because  you brought a word out of a bad spirit.  It happens more often than not!  Yip, the one you confronted deserves an apology, plain and simple.  In the insurance business we called that the  “proximate cause”. Claims are paid on the basis of who or what started the chain reaction that resulted in a loss.  In cases where a feud has been brewing for long periods of time, it might be best to assume that you were the “official offender or proximate cause” and just suck it up and repent. STUBBORN. (Ugly, ugly, ugly!) That is like a bad monopoly card: “Get out of freedom…do not collect righteous peace”.  That kind of stiffness in our heart usually gets dealt with by God in unique and creative fashion.  Highly efficient, effective and it is quite possible it will become publicly awkward for you!

With all that being said, we have to get to the place of considering  ALL that happens in our encounters.  Surely we are not right all the time…every time…are we?

Go ahead.  Say the hardest words ever.  Right what is wrong.  It’s elemental living.

-MDP-

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I’m writing this specifically to my sons and daughters (all of you).

So, you don’t like your circumstance? You’re are not seeing what you want? You have cried out, but there are delays and you think that maybe you are invisible to God or He is deaf? The reports are bad and you have to fight to keep a nostril above the water in order to breath?

What are your choices?

You could come into agreement with you plight and just voice out-loud your personal rejection. Bad ideal. You could speak more death on yourself, your dreams, your hopes. Or, maybe you could try harder. Yeah, that will fix it. Try harder. *sigh* Maybe rebellion? Oh, wait…rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft. Good little Christian kids don’t do witchcraft. Scratch that one. Self-pity? That one gets us in really big trouble with the Lord, so…no. How about a temper tantrum? Like a 3 year old whose momma won’t buy the bubbles at the grocery store? Uhh, that one makes it too obvious, probably not. Well crap! What the buzzard fudge are we supposed to do?

OR…or…you could heal yourself. Yeah! You could PROPHECY what is true about you. David said, “I WILL bless the LORD!”

Doubt he always felt like it. I suspect that there were times that circumstance did not equate to a cheerful “thanks Lord!” But, David is prophesying to his own spirit that he doesn’t govern his life by his eyes, surroundings or soggy emotions!

Come on man of God! Come on daughter of Zion! Scream in tongues, prophecy with fire, tell the truth! Change it in the spirit and then you’ll not be so wound up in the struggle of our natural surroundings! God gets timing. God knows timing. It’s all about timing! You asked to live by faith. So…have faith!

Heal thyself! Speak life! Speak life! SPEAK LIFE!

-MDP-

Sitting with my devotional earlier this morning, I was reminded again of some simple stuff that we sophisticated and institutionalized Christ followers forget from time to time.   Rohr:  “Thomas the Apostle symbolizes our temptation towards heady faith, so Jesus asks him to touch the wounds (John 20:27). Undoubtedly we have lived far too long in our heads.  We think we have to tell the gospel just right and systematically explain that our way is the way to “The Way”.   Again, the consumption is with our way…not His way.

The Sunday after Easter, Patti and I attended a big ole church where our son (in-law) Jon is on staff and leads worship from time to time.  It’s a monstrous place, lots of people, quality effects for every person’s appetite.  There was so much going on, so much to see and the music filled the place with such precision that I actually had the thought:  How does anyone ever get to Jesus in here?  It wasn’t a judgment, but more like a split-second ramble that just popped in my mind.  I mean, I’ve worshiped in some crazy atmospheres and been totally at ease in almost any situation, but on that day, in that moment, I questioned.  Immediately, I sensed myself walking down a quiet hallway in the midst of the worship center.  The music was fading and the special effects lighting was all moving behind me.  When I got the the end, I saw Him.  I cannot describe Him, but it was Him.  As quickly as the question came it was answered:  “You press through until you find Me.  Once you find me, reach out and touch Me.” Then in a moment, I was back in the room.  I was a slobbering mess.

I mention this little encounter because something happened to me that day.  I had been battling with a skin rash (hives) for months.  I had ask for prayer multiple times, gotten prayer more than once but was still clawing myself into bleeding scabs and was pretty much miserable most of my waking hours.  No kidding, the hives disappeared and have not reappeared since that day.  In fact, I didn’t realize they were gone until later that week when Patti and I were in Nigeria.  That is when it dawned on me that He was doing stuff “in” me while I was looking “at” Him.

There is probably a sermon in there somewhere and I fight the religious temptation to explain it all and put it in another formula for mass production, so I’ll stop while it is still simple.

-MDP-

I was recently ask by one of my spiritual sons, who was it that has most influenced my life?  I have all the general responses like you do:  God, parents, spouse, friends, children, people.  But, in the late 1980’s, Patti and I became friends with Dave and Lawanna Busby and their beautiful daughter Dava.  The passion that drove that man was unlike anything we had ever encountered.  It was our first taste of the Spirit and an up close and personal tutelage in what victory wrapped in hardship really looked like.  Dave invested countless hours in Patti and myself.  It is the kind of debt that you really can’t ever pay back, but you can try to honor and make the same investment of yourself to others.

Since those early days of ministry, Dave elected and agreed to his final homecoming with the Lord.  I think of him often.  Especially when I’m around one of his best friends who is a Sr Pastor in Minnesota.  Busby’s name comes up and the laughter begins.  He was a man’s man, a great friend, a passionate husband and a dialed-in dad.  He served like a wild-man with unbridled passion and energy.  We are all richer because of Busby’s deposits.

Check out Dave Busby’s website:  CLICK HERE

WATCH THE VIDEO…IT’S A GREAT TASTE OF BUSBY AT HIS BEST!

Love and miss you friend,

-MDP-

Another Training Camp, another 130 kids ready to launch out on THE WORLD RACE.  Training Camp marks the initial assault on a kid’s religious bondage.  The battle is intense and the hunger for freedom and the real stuff of God will manifest itself and enter into hand-to-hand combat within the confines of old soups of traditions, church backgrounds, limited understanding, theological pride, fear of man and plain ole religious bondage.  Most kids desperately want to get free, but they have to get over themselves, conquer fear and go for it (been there, done that and it’s easier said than done).

There is usually a breaking point where they stop with all the debating in their mind.  They feel the Wind for the first time and they begin to not give a crap about what it looks like anymore.  It happened again at this camp on Monday night.  Leadership had its plan, but the Spirit had other plans.  The worship team hit the first cords and the Wind began to blow.  There is no other way to say this:  WE DANCED OURSELVES FREE. Chains broke everywhere.  The fact that it was so spontaneous only confirmed the force of God’s desire for the release of liberty.

It is a scriptural principle:  PSALM 149 tells us that we can actually take back ground from the enemy by our dance.  We can enter into the prophetic warfare in the heavenlies by moving our feet, clapping our hands, twirling, dancing!!!  Some of us have never even given God a rousing “Amen” at church.  Maybe a golf-clap, but never real activity.  Oh, our team can score a goal, punch it into the end-zone or blast one over the fence and we absolutely loose it.  Maybe we hear Keith Urban or some nasty funk-horn break loose and we just HAVE TO DANCE!   But when it comes to God, we act like we’re attending a viewing at the funeral home or  sliding in and out of ICU with stealthy quiet.   God is not asleep or sick.  It is OK to be a little rowdy.  Monday night was normal business or it should be normal.  Not camp hype or just youthful emotion, but the expected expression of a generation sold out in devotion and passion for the King of all kings.  On that magical night, the Spirit directed the whole thing and it was frikk’n AWESOME!

CHECK OUT THE DANCING (yes, that is me dancing my butt off.  Had to do it, no choice, it was frikk’n amazing!)

-MDP-