Pastor Wes Lindseth
Articles / Pastors Letters
Date: May 30, 2002 - 06:35 AM
|
The Holy Spirit really spoke to my heart and said:
"you need to have him, and you need to humble yourself...so when Jerry came...God poured out His Spirit in a mighty way..
What is the fruit......What is the proof of this...
I have seen...
1: Our youth group went like from 40 to 160.
2: watched kids get filled with the power of God
3: watched Our church get transformed!
4: for every one family that has left, 10 have come.
5: Our finances have doubled
6: The tithing has gone way up
Wes being interviewed on TNB by Nate Wolf
Nate: God is doing wonderful things at Fairwood, why don't you tell us a little about that.
Wes: We have been hungry for God.. really for nine years .. and seek the Lord having good services. And when Jerry had come to our church we had talked to us on the phone, he said your church isn't broke. But he said God just wanted to do some more things there. And I wasn't prepared for all that. Pastors have a lot of problems with control. Because we see an out of control world. And part of the difficulty in the ministry is your are unhappy because the people are not happy out there in the body. Because they are not happy unless they have Jesus fully touching their lives, when they have been transformed. And there's a lot of people in love with the world, and wanting to be in love with Jesus, they are trying to have both of those worlds. They say the statistic is 85% of the pastors are unhappy pastoring. And many of them wanting to quit the ministry. The attrition rate is tremendous. Because people come with a series of expectations. They come with all kinds of ideas when they come in.
And so when Jerry came, you will find that I'm not nearly as demonstrative as my brother. But I passionately love Jesus. And I want to see God move in our body. And so we were together, and when he came, in fact I had him come first for a Sunday, and I said you know I'm just going to see if the chemistry is right. And here's Jerry up there and you just got to know Jerry. He's up there on Sunday morning and I'm sitting there and I'm going "boy this is going to be a stretch for me" and then the Holy Spirit spoke to my heart and said: "are you going to be happy with just pastoring the church and doing the pastor Wes routine, do you just want to go through, or do you want Me to have this church do you want me to move in this area? And are you willing to let go of the control, are you willing to let go? And also you are full of stinking pride. God told me you are full of pride."
And this is in the middle of a Sunday morning service and I'm standing with Jerry right there, and I am slumped down in my seat, and God is just really convicting me. And because I want people to like me. You know I mean, I am also honest. Most pastors are not up there just because they are pastors, they really do want their people to love them, and enjoy them as pastors. And you I said if we have him come I don't think people are going to like me or Jerry.
The Holy Spirit really spoke to my heart and said: "you need to have him, and you need to humble yourself."
So he came, and God poured out His Spirit in a might way.
And what we have seen, it's been, (pastor Wes is now looking at me) what was it in March, we went for four weeks in March and we have seen, you can have all kinds of manifestations, you can have all kinds of things happen, but the proof of the pudding is:
What are the lives of the people after somebody has left,
and what has God done. What is the change? Right? What's the change?
Well I have seen:
Our youth group went like from 40 to 160.
I watched kids get filled with the power of God.
Our church get transformed!
And the only people that have not enjoyed what God is doing are the same people who didn't enjoy what Jesus was doing when He was here on earth, the religious ones.
And for every one family that has left 10 have come. So that's ok, we'll take that.
Our finances have doubled, during the summer.
The tithing has gone way up.
So you know and a pastors' worst fear
is that well we will have to cut back
and every body is going to leave and this kind of thing
You know when Jesus comes,
and the reality and the presence of God
lives are transformed
where the blessing of the Lord maketh rich and adds no sorrow to it.
So I think the enemy probably is the one lying to the pastors the most and our own fear.
And I encourage the pastors today,
If you want God, first humble yourself, and then say:
Lord what ever you have to do, you do it to me.
What ever you have to do, do it because I am desperate for You.
The hungry and thirsty he will not turn away.
You must see the video.
|
This article comes from World's Largest Prayer Board Annointed.net News
http://www.annointed.net/
The URL for this story is:
http://www.annointed.net/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=106
|
|
