Song Showcase/Story Behind The Song – March 2009 – by Gordon Jensen

NO AGENDA

Album: I’m Listening Lord

Words and Music by Gordon Jensen

Jesus was the express image of the invisible God. He was the articulation and demonstration of heaven’s will upon the earth for forty-two months of public ministry. He said that he only did those things he saw his Father doing and only said those things he heard his Father saying. (John 5:19,30) After a frantic three-day search for their missing twelve year old son, his highly annoyed and duly concerned parents found him at the temple in Jerusalem, amazing Jewish scholars. His response to them was, “Did you not know that I must be about my Father’s business!” (Luke 2:49) He also said, “My meat (food, sustenance) is to do the will of Him Who sent me, and to finish His work.” (John 4:34)

Jesus did not do his own thing. He did not have a personal agenda. There was no mixture in him. The Father’s agenda was his agenda. The Father’s ideas, plans, and dreams, were his ideas, plans, and dreams. Jesus was not concerned with political correctness and the various opinions of others. There is only One he needed to please. His judgments were righteous because he did not seek his own will, but the will of the Father Who sent him. (John 5:30) Did Jesus have a will of his own? Yes, of course he did! In the garden of Gethsemane, he struggled with it, “Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.” (Matthew 26:39)

Jesus was and is the template and pattern for all of us who collectively constitute his body in the earth today. We are the body, but He remains the head. We cannot find a better way than His. We cannot upgrade that which is impossible to improve upon! Much of the world of Christian religion bears little resemblance to the early church or the example of Jesus. Religion is largely dominated by man’s ideas and opinions. There has come a huge disconnect between the body and the head.

When Jesus opened blind eyes, healed the sick, raised the dead, and performed various miracles, they were simply cases of Almighty God in Heaven doing those wonderful things on earth through His obedient Son Jesus, who had no agenda, but the Father’s. God never promised to bless our ideas, plans, and dreams, because He only blesses His. Only God can do, and does, His work in the earth, but does so through spiritual gifts and offices operating in obedient sons and daughters, the body of Christ, the true church, of which He alone is the head. Jesus said, “He who believes in me, the works that I do, he will do also”. (John 14:12) We see this was true in the daily lives of those in the early church. The same sort of miracles Jesus had done, opening blind eyes, healing the sick, and raising the dead, happened through them as well.

In the mid 1990’s, I was invited to present a concert at a church in Memphis, Tennessee, during their regular Sunday night service. It was a hot, summer evening. A sound engineer accompanied me to set up and run the P.A. system, as it was my plan to conduct a ninety-minute program of my gospel songs, which is what I normally did, and was comfortable with. My son, Gordon, had come along on this particular trip. For quite some time, the Lord had been refining my thinking, through a spiritual and emotional process. I was hungry for more, and was very open to the move of God. I had been asking God to use me in new ways and perform miracles, telling Him I didn’t care what I had to do or what it would cost. Little did I know He was about to answer this prayer in a huge way.

The service began, as so many do, with the church musicians leading the people in songs of praise and worship. I was sitting on the outer edge of the audience, waiting to be introduced, so I could begin the concert. As I sat there, I was drawn away in my thoughts, and became transfixed on a mental picture of a human head. As I observed it, a section of the skull was removed revealing the brain. Then, the word TUMOR appeared in block letters diagonally over the visible brain. Suddenly, I felt a burst of excitement, as I realized this was a “word of knowledge”. (1 Cor. 12:8) I was being shown something the Father was doing in connection with the meeting that had just begun. Moments later, the pastor introduced me. I walked onto the platform, took the microphone, and instead of starting a song, I said, “Ladies and gentlemen, I believe the Lord has just shown me there is someone here with a brain tumor He desires to heal”. “I do not know if it is a man or a woman, young or old, or if it is cancer or benign, I just know that if you will come right now and let us lay hands on you in prayer, the Lord will heal you”. I thought someone would immediately rise to his or her feet and come forward, but nobody moved. The sudden realization hit me that I had done something radical. I made a tremendous leap of faith and found myself wondering where it would take me. If only I had stayed with my own plan, in my old familiar comfort zone! I thought to myself, “This pastor will think I’m a nut, and will call his friends in the ministry to warn them about me. I’ve just committed career suicide.” Still, I knew in my heart of hearts, I had received a genuine communication from the Holy Spirit, so I repeated everything, even more emphatically than before.

When I said it the second time, a young woman who appeared to be in her mid twenties rose to her feet sobbing and crying, and made her way forward. From the platform, I asked, “Is it you”? “No”, she replied.

I was fit to be tied. I had stepped out of the boat into uncharted territory, unsure of what to do next. For a second time, I asked, “Is it you”? Once again she answered, “NO!” Exasperated, I inquired, “Then…WHO is it?” Through tears, she exclaimed, “It’s my baby!” I said, “Your baby? Where is your baby? In the nursery?” She responded, “No, I am pregnant”.

The story came forth that this woman, Catherine, was five months along in her second pregnancy. Medical experts had diagnosed her unborn child with a sizeable growth in the brain. The doctors warned the child may not be born alive, and if so, would likely be a “vegetable”. Their recommendation was abortion.

As we prayed, Catherine was unable to stand as the power of God overwhelmed her. Immediately, most of the congregation flooded the front of the auditorium, and one by one, requested prayer for specific needs. The atmosphere was charged with faith. That evening, I never got to sing, not even one song!

Later that night, during the 200-mile drive back to Nashville, the three of us discussed what had occurred. What was that? It was a fluke! It will probably never happen again, but if it does, what will we do? These were all questions and reactions we tossed around to one another.

I let a couple of weeks pass before calling the Memphis church. I inquired about Catherine. I was told that just days after the meeting, she returned to her doctors for a new battery of tests. The results revealed the growth was no longer present in the baby’s brain. The tumor was gone! Praise the Lord! A beautiful baby girl was born on New Year’s Eve and given the name Meagan.

Speaking with the pastor a few years later, I learned that this growing child was active, bright, and perfectly healthy, with a special magnetism about her. You would never have known the condition she was in when God so wonderfully intervened!

I could have given a nice, safe, concert performance that night, but God invited me to step outside of the box in faith. He asked me to follow His agenda and lay aside my own. Since then, God has allowed me many such opportunities, and every time I trust His voice and direction, He does wondrous things for people that could not happen any other way.

This is God accomplishing His will through the body of Christ on earth. I’ve got no agenda, but the Father’s!