Fat N Happy

I have been a Christian for over 20 years and have been privileged to hear the very best of preaching and teaching.  From time to time over the years, I have heard people say that the American church is fat and lazy, always the recipients of Bible teaching and preaching and not going out and doing the work of God.  I thought about this when I watched the movie Secretariat – for the fourth time – over the weekend.

Secretariat was an American Thoroughbred racehorse, that in 1973 became the first U.S. Triple Crown champion in twenty-five years, setting new race records in two of the three events in the Series—the Kentucky Derby (1:59²⁄₅), and the Belmont Stakes (2:24)—records that still stand today. (Wikipedia)

The Spirit of God quickened a couple of things to me in this movie.  The man who was with Secretariat all the time as his groom, Eddie Sweat,  said this about his huge appetite – “Right now that horse is all sleep and eat but he has fire in him!”

There is a saying that there are good things, and then there are God things.  Good things seem like the thing to do at the time, but a “God thing” is anointed by His very Spirit to accomplish a work for His Kingdom.  In the Pentecostal world, we love the verse – “Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the LORD Almighty.”  (Zechariah 4:6)   

There is a Church that has grown fat and happy on the Word preached by the Spirit.  Some think she has slumbered for far too long, and perhaps that is true. 

The world never saw a champion like Secretariat, and by all records, has never seen one like her again.  If you haven’t seen this movie – it’s a Christian movie and powerfully prophetic – you should.  The final race scene is a picture of the Church as we are about to see and be a part of.  We have fed heavily on the Word of God and we are baptized by the Spirit of God – there is a fire in our belly and in our bones. 

But we will not fully run our race until the battle cry is sounded.  When the call of God resounds in our spirit, we will rise from what the world thinks is ineptitude and irrelevancy and we will run.  We will not flinch; we will not stop until we have accomplished all that the Word of God says we will accomplish in these last days.  It will be a mighty work, it will be a work of completion, it will be the harvest of the ages. 

The world has never seen a champion like the Church of the Living God and will never see one like her again.

This is the verse that is read as Secretariat runs with all his might at the end of the movie and it will be the crowning verse of the Church – grown fat on the Word and happy in the Spirit – chomping at the bit and ready at the gate:

Job 39:19-24 (NIV)
  “Do you give the horse its strength
   or clothe its neck with a flowing mane?
 Do you make it leap like a locust,
   striking terror with its proud snorting?
 It paws fiercely, rejoicing in its strength,
   and charges into the fray.
 It laughs at fear, afraid of nothing;
   it does not shy away from the sword.
 The quiver rattles against its side,
   along with the flashing spear and lance.
 In frenzied excitement it eats up the ground;
   it cannot stand still when the trumpet sounds.
 

Rhonda Roughton
Rhonda is founder of INK Ministries. INK Ministries' mission is to build up the body of Christ through writing, preaching and teaching with an emphasis on the New Covenant and who we are in Christ. "Write down the vision and make it plain on tablets so that whoever reads it may run with it." Habakkuk 2:2-3. This is a "hands-on" ministry as well as a writing ministry - moving in the gifts and power of the Holy Spiit to bring hope, healing and deliverance to all those who hunger for more of Him.