"Let's Be Real and Relevant and Go to 'De-Mask-Us'!" by Robert Ricciardelli Visionary Advancement Strategies Servants in the Market Place <>< www.vision2advance.com Robert@... Let's Be Real And Relevant Sons and daughters of the living God, it is time to be real and it is time to be relevant in advancing His kingdom. We put our kingdom game faces on for Sunday service; we then prepare to put another face on for work the next day. We should have one heart, mind, and influence in all phases of the marketplace. We have a mask for many jurisdictions and yet Father desires for us to be His children and His light every day, crossing every sector of life. We must be living out a Christ-like existence at home, at work and, yes, even on Sunday morning. Our friend Francis Frangipane has spoken about Paul's transformational path to Damascus. Father desires to lead us on a transformational path to De-Mask-Us! As we are at home, so we must be on Sunday, at work, and any other context of life we engage in. It is time to be real people of God. Sometimes those in leadership have the most difficult time, because they do not want others to know they are struggling. Fear of man many times keeps us from receiving the help we need to get us out of the pitfalls of life. So we put on a mask and say, "Praise You, Jesus," when we really want to say, "Save me, Jesus, I am drowning." How Do I Be Real? Joyce and I celebrated a marriage covenant weekend with Craig and Jan Hill, (Ancient Paths) this past weekend. They had a couple there who spoke about how they survived adultery in their marriage. They had served God for 17 years in marriage, with 3 children, and high profile Christian TV and radio shows. At some point, the enemy found a hole in their armors and possibly some masks were developed to cover up the pain. Somewhere along the line, the wife could not be real enough to cry out for help until the enemy had schemed his adulterous web around her. She also became pregnant from this other relationship, which added another dagger of pain. In a hurry, this couple became real enough to cry out for help and had godly counsel help them to get started on the road towards healing. The reality of their pain was tremendous to hear and yet the restoration power of God was so evidently in process through them. It was a great reminder of how important it is to walk daily with our Lord and never feel that we have arrived or somehow become eternally immune to the schemes of the enemy! The more we can allow the Holy Spirit to begin to peel away those masks that have covered our vulnerability, the more we can begin to see ourselves and others with clarity. We can never reach the continuing depth in relationship with the Lord or others, without removing these barriers of self-preservation. As we begin to lay ourselves bare before Him, He then can cover us with His preservation and His confidence that we now can live through. As we journey into the reality of who we are, we now can become relevant to the world around us. I have heard it said often, "People do not care about how much you know, until they know how much you care." We may speak the Word of God to others, but without love, it profits nothing. It seems that we, many times, carry our brief bag of chapter and verses for others, but leave our suitcase of love and relationship at home. We may not be able to express love because of our own pain, but we have no problem expressing law or judgment. We must continue by the grace of God, to allow the Holy Spirit to root out our own pain before or even while we are trying to release others that we serve. How Do I Be Relevant to a Hurting World? We need to hear from the Holy Spirit as to how we go about developing relationships with others. Many times it might be a cup of water or encouragement of the gifts we may see in them. We sometimes shut the door on what the Holy Spirit is doing by slipping into our Christianese language that is not yet relevant to the ears of those receiving. We may slip into the "hallelujahs" and "praise you, Jesus" because of religion rather than divine inspiration. Next thing you see from those listeners is a pattern of avoidance of those who are more interested in pushing Jesus on them, then really listening to the pain that is on their heart. We must uncover the pain and provide solutions and, yes, we all know Jesus Christ is the ultimate solution. Jesus Himself gives us a brilliant example of how He presented Himself to others. He did not run up to Peter and Andrew and say, "Hallelujah, praise be My Holy name, I am the Son of the living God, you must follow me, or you are going to hell." What He did do is encourage them to follow Him and spoke to their language and their passion as fishermen, "I will teach you to be fishers of men." As they followed and built a relationship with Jesus, even Jesus allowed the Holy Spirit to reveal who He was. Peter's Confession of Christ: Matthew 16:13-17 "Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, He was asking His disciples, 'Who do people say that the Son of Man is?' "And they said, 'Some say John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; but still others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.' "He said to them, 'But who do you say that I am?' "Simon Peter answered, 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.' "And Jesus said to him, 'Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.'" We must be obedient to the Holy Spirit in every relational conversation or divine engagement. There will be times when we are to speak the Word and give chapter and verse, but there will be more occasions where the Lord would want us to just be available to love and serve others in His name and save the chapter, verse, and hallelujahs for another time. Perhaps the time for "hallelujah, praise you, Jesus" in a particular relationship is saved for a time when all of heaven is celebrating for the individual, because the Holy Spirit had revealed Christ to them and they received His eternal grace. Follow the Lead of the Holy Spirit Now some of you might be thinking okay, first we are supposed to be real, and now this bold Italian guy is telling us to hold back from who we are and how we talk. All I am saying is that Paul says that we are to become all things to all people to win them to Christ. It is more important to serve to the immediate need and hold certain dialogue to the appropriate time as the Spirit leads. I Corinthians 9:19-20 "Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law." NIV Agents of Transformation Another way to be relevant is to rearrange our Christian worldview. For the most part, much of the church has been in retreat mode for Jesus to come and rescue us off of this wretched planet. Christ has always called His church to advance His word and His ways. We have always been called to be agents of transformation wherever He leads. We must continue to be lights for Him in the jurisdictions of government, education, business and finance, media, healthcare, and law. We have relegated much of our influence to inside the walls of a building that we call church. The true definition of church as God sees it is a people and not a building. I still see many that rest their hopes of influencing others for the gospel of Christ by trying to get them to church (as a building or organization), rather than bring the gospel to them as an extension of the church, His people. Bringing them to a gathering is truly only one way, but there may be a more relevant way for that person, and the Holy Spirit will show us. Let's consider leading them, and not necessarily preaching them, to Christ, and then after they receive the good news, invite them to church. Most of all conversions happen in the context of relationships. Yes, there will be the soap box evangelist on the street corner that will win some, but most of us are called to the context in which we live and engage in. We Must Become Real Every Day of the Week In conclusion, we must become real every day of the week and not slip into our Christianese to validate who we are. We must understand a proper worldview that Christ is, or desires to be, in every jurisdiction in life and not just the four walls of the church. And finally, we must be obedient and be able to hear from the Holy Spirit on how we can serve others. We must pursue a life that is real and relevant to a generation of hurt and hopeless people. We will be rejected, we will suffer in this reality, but we will also bring much glory to our King and His kingdom. Let us build His way and speak His words and be led by His direction and timing in Jesus' name, Amen. CHRIST IS ALL, Robert Ricciardelli Visionary Advancement Strategies Servants in the Market Place <>< www.vision2advance.com Robert@... Permission is granted (and you are also encouraged) to reprint these articles in hard copy form, as well as sending them to your own email lists and posting them on your own websites. We ask only that you keep Elijah List website, email contact info, and author contact information intact. 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