A Word to the Church through Steve Shultz

The Lord often sneaks up on me when I least expect it and talks. That is, he communicates, he speaks, He gets the point across. Know what I mean?

The other day my wife and I took a pickup load of trash to the dump. Since we live way out in the country, there is no weekly trash service. That means that trash builds up in trash bags in the garage until we can't stand it any longer and we do something about it.

This dump is high up a hill. It's high up because there are tons and tons of other peoples' garbage and we had to drive up this hill so we could dump our stuff on top of theirs.

WE COULDN'T BELIEVE WHAT WE SAW!

As we got out together to drop the tailgate of the pickup, we both were suddenly amazed. Looking out over the valley, which interestingly enough is quite a beautiful scene, even from the dump (that stinks like any other dump), we both saw the largest, the most exquisite, the most colorful--no . . . brilliant, unbelievably awesome rainbow that either of us have EVER seen in our entire life! Absolutely NO EXAGGERATION HERE! We both compared notes and arrived at the same conclusion. From childhood to now, neither of us had EVER seen a rainbow that even remotely compared to the beauty and grandeur and COLOR and size of this rainbow. I can still see it in my mind and I still can't believe it! I didn't know God would make a rainbow like that on this earth!

One of us was bound to say it first, but Derene said it first.

"I think this is prophetic," Derene said.

I said, "Yep, I think you're right."

Prophetic, you ask?

Well, that's the way he often talks to his people. Through things made.

Rainbows are promises--of course.

Gen 9:16-17 16 "When the bow is in the cloud, then I will look upon it, to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth." 17 And God said to Noah, "This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth."

GOD KEEPS HIS PROMISES

When the Lord looks at His own creation, the rainbow, He states that He will remember his promises, his covenants with you. Forever!

Has God made you some promises that have not yet been fulfilled in your eyes--in your life?

Derene and I kept watching this rainbow with every bag of trash we threw out on the dump heap. Get rid of trash. See rainbow. Throw out more trash, gaze at the gorgeous rainbow. Throw out more junk. Be awestruck by the promises of God--through the rainbow.

Sometimes, in learning to hear God's "voice," there's a connection to when. . . and where-- we see what we see--in this case, the rainbow.

The Lord seemed to be saying to us, and I think He's saying to the Church, (since He knew I would write this) the following:

In effect God was saying:

"As you get rid of the trash in your life-- whatever I reveal to you to discard or leave behind-- you will begin to experience the promises I've made to you being fulfilled. It's not that you are working your way to "earn" my promises,---it's just that you're getting the trash-- the junk, the distraction, the OLD THING out of the way. As you do that, my promises can begin to fall into place."

SO I PONDERED THIS WORD AND WHAT IT MEANT--AND GOD HAD TIMED YET ANOTHER EVENT FOR ME ...

Early the next morning (yesterday) I picked up the book I have been reading on the Life of John Wimber, called, "John Wimber, The Way it Was"--by Carol Wimber. I started reading where I'd last left off. Here is where I picked up the story in progress: John was a brand new Christian, trying to learn how to walk with God. It was Christmas time, and the family was trying to figure out how to get by during Christmas. John was suddenly called up by Bill Medley of the "Righteous Brothers" from England where they had just done a warm-up act for the Beatles. He wanted John to do a Christmas album with them. And John wanted to do it.

On page 67, this is what I read was John's response (the day after my "dump" experience) . . . .

CAROL WIMBER SPEAKING:

"After we prayed, John called back Bill's wife and asked her to give Bill the message, 'Thanks but he couldn't do the Christmas album.' In the next few weeks, John sold all his horns except one that he traded for a painting he knew I [Carol Wimber] wanted. It was a sad, hard time in our new life as baby Christians.

We had a station wagon in those days and John loaded up the entire vehicle with boxes of music and records and arrangements. His whole lifetime of the work that he loved went into those cartons, and on up to the city dump, where he pushed them out of the back of the station wagon and onto the piles of garbage and other discarded items. It made my heart ache to see him do that. He was totally silent the whole time.

I looked at what he was doing and I thought of the corn of wheat that has to die to bring forth much fruit, and I prayed that someday, one day, God would do something beautiful through John."

[END OF BOOK QUOTE] ----------

The rest of the story of what God did through John Wimber is well known. Talk about a man being used of God. And some of John's greatest contributions to the Body of Christ have been His music and simple, sweet, praise songs written after this time in his life.

My sense is that this "word" is speaking directly to some of you. You may have literal trash, or a bunch of junk, or even a life's work that the Lord is saying, "Son (or daughter), it's time for that thing to die, so that I can bring forth new fruit out of your life."

This week I learned of a dear friend, a pastor who helped pioneer a whole church movement in Oregon. After many church plants, related directly or indirectly to his church pioneering--and many of them now flourishing, he has had to close his doors, after 15 years of he and his wife pouring out their lives into this Church. And now the Lord told Him, in so many words, "It's over." Know what I think? The best is yet to come for this man and woman of God. They did it. They obeyed. They pioneered. And now it's over. Why? Only God knows, but what does God know? ---That the Glory of the latter house will be greater than the Glory of the former house. You just watch and see.

May we all be willing to put aside what the Lord says "discard"--and as we do, may we look up and see the RAINBOW, the MOST BEAUTIFUL RAINBOW WE'VE EVER SEEN of God's promise to restore to us better things, things far beyond our imagination--things we would never have dared to believe, until we trusted HIM at His Word and removed those things from our lives that He was asking of us.

Blessings to you all in Obedience to the Master,

Steve Shultz THE ELIJAH LIST