My life

Trust

2011-12-11T22:44:00.001-08:00

We were never meant to limit God to what we have seen him do before. Rather, any gifting that He has done through us is also an opportunity to recognize that it was Him - and that if he could do through us what He just did, that He can be trusted for much more. If we internalize gifts too much, we can focus more on them than on the One who worked through us. Perhaps those that get the most done in the kingdom are those that can trust Him for the most! There is a simplicity in child-like trust and having Him be the source and simply loving others rather than making man the source and trying to control and command in order to get agendas (even good or Holy Ghost annointed agendas) to try to come to pass. Obviously, trust is only going to grow through spending substantial time in relationship with the one that we are learning to trust. Also, it will occur through having a healthier relationship through removing wrong mindsets about who they really are...

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And some quotes:
"[The Apostle] Paul is saying that to manifest the gifts of the Spirit without love is to seperate the gift from the Divine Giver." -Howard Ervin Spirit Baptism p. 120

"Divine initiative always courts a human response. Nonetheless the assumption is often made that the Christian is not to seek the manifestations [gifts] of the Spirit. It is frequently phrased something like this: 'If God wants me to have them, He will give them to me.' On the surface this affirmation sounds convincingly pious... [However,] There is a rather obvious error in the tacit assumption that graces acts irresistably upon the passive, even indifferent child of God... There is a divine/human synergism. The divine initiative does not function by arbitrary decree... God's gifts are for those who eagerly desire them or else Paul's words are meaningless (e.g. 'desire earnestly spiritual gifts')." -Ervin p. 132

Believing for things to be getting worse and worse until the rapture comes.... might be severely hindering the church!

2011-11-05T01:56:00.000-07:00

Believing for things to get worse and worse until the rapture comes.... very well may be hindering the church and keeping Christians from transforming society.

If Martin Luther felt things were only going to get worse and worse and then the rapture would happen (so he may as well not do anything), there would have been no Protestant Reformation.

If the Pilgrims felt that the religious persecution they were facing was just a sign that things were getting worse and worse until they were raptured out, they might not have ever come to the New World.

If the founding fathers would have just accepted that things are supposed to get worse and worse until they were to be raptured out, they would have never started America and had the freedoms that we now do.

If Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, and others would have just accepted that slavery/segregation is just a sign that things are getting worse and worse until the rapture occurs, we still would have these atrocities today.

If you and I accept that things are getting worse and worse until we get raptured out (because we are just strangers passing through), we will likely accept things happenning that should not and might make future generations pay.

Are there perhaps things that we are accepting as being from God that He is wanting us to fight against because they are NOT from Him?

NOBODY knows when the end will come. I am tired of hearing people say that it will happen in the next ten years because of how dark things are getting (because we have a recession). Look at history - how about Europe in the Middle Ages when a third of the people died of the Bubonic Plague and London burned down (amongst tremendous corruption in the church and many other issues). Things have been far worse. I am tired of hearing people believing and expecting the worst - God help us so that we do not receive things getting worse and worse for ourselves and loved ones by believing for it and through feeling disempowered to do anything as a result!

For a different view of eschatology, see Victorious Eschatology by Harold Eberle (especially where he talks of the rapture). This is not to say that I am Post-Millenial either. It is to say that there can be rather negative implications to how we live life and what we will let occur if we are only focused on the negative prophecies regarding the latter days.

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Every gift you have is reproducible in others (who will honor that gift on your life). That means EVERY gift. So perhaps our primary focus (for the sake of kingdom expansion) should be on the reproducing over the using of the gift... Or using of the gift in the process of demonstrating to others how it works.... The only hindrance from the spiritual father's side is pride in thinking how hard I sacrificed to get/grow in the gift...

Quotes

2011-08-03T00:18:00.000-07:00

Some of these come from my friends' facebook statuses -I'm just quoting the original, but thanks for tossing them up on fb! Some of these were my statuses that I didn't want to lose in time... sorry for the repeat if you already read them. However, I need to read many of them more than once :).

"Pride only, the chief of all iniquities, can make us treat gifts as if they were rightful attributes of our nature, and, while receiving benefits, rob our Benefactor of His due glory." -Bernard of Clairvaux

"Compassion is the heart of God for that person and at that moment you get a live download of the overwhelming compassion of God for that person. And every time compassion comes, it opens the doorway to the gifts of the Spirit in operation. Compassion will open the gifts of the Spirit." -Faisal Malick (The Destiny of Islam in the End Times, p 47)

"Faith isn't simply trusting God in lack; it is trusting Him for increase on what you already have been given." -Billy Jones

"Over-obsession with the gifts at the expense of relationship with God can cause one to limit what they will believe God for to their gifting. Under-obsession with the gifts, though, is disobedience to God (1 Cor. 12:31) and will often cause people to never fully become who God has created them to be." - Me (used as my status)

"Any part of one's life that they can't talk to someone else about is not a healthy part of their life."-Me (To clarify: I didn't mean they need to tell EVERYONE about it. But if a person has issues that they can tell absolutely no one, that is not what I see the Bible identifying as living in the light. It is through the context of relationships that people heal and grow. As AA says, "You are only as sick as your secrets.")

Human history is the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy. - C.S. Lewis

"Striving and working harder is a poor substitute for encountering God's heart in kingdom ministry. It just is not anywhere near as effective." -Me

"Healing the sick is only a peripheral part of the Gospel if you aren't the sick person." -Me

"The rate at which God does things supernaturally through our lives should prompt people around us to be discontent with living in their comfort zone and create hunger for something more. How will they hunger for more if they do not see that more is available?" -Me

"Real slavery is living your life trying to gain favor with people. Real
freedom is living your life because you have favor with Christ." -Tullian Tchividjian

"There is something about encountering the Lord that satisfies an ache... Learning how to seperate oneself to encounter the Lord is essential." -from my notes of Bill Johnson 10/7/08 speaking to first year at BSSM

Quote on how to know God's will

2011-06-23T20:15:00.000-07:00

This might just be my favorite quote on knowing God's will...

"In his book Decision Making and the Will of God, Garry Friesen has done a masterful job of critiquing the view that God always has one particular thing for you to do in a given case, that correct decision-making depends on your finding out what that thing is and that if you miss it, you will only be in God's permissive will at best - and a second-class citizen in the kingdom of God. Arguing against this extremely harmful view, Friesen remarks,

'The major point is this: God does not have an ideal, detailed life-plan uniquely designed for each believer that must be discovered in order to make correct decisions. The concept of an "individual will of God" [in that sense] cannot be established by reason, experience, biblical example, or biblical teaching.'

So, the perfect will of God may allow, for a particular person, a number of different alternatives. For most people, for example, a number of different choices in selecting a partner (or none at all), various vocations, educational institutions or places of residence may all equally be God's perfect will - none being in themselves better or preferred by God in relation to the ultimate outcome desired by him.

The sincere seeker should assume that this is so and should move forward with faith in God if no specific word comes on the matter concerned after a reasonable period of time. All of this is consistent with there sometimes being only one choice that would perfectly fit God's will for us. Our choices must be approached on a case-by-case basis just as life is lived one day at a time, trusting God.

Just as character is revealed only when we are permitted or required to do as we want, so also the degree and maturity of our faith are manifested only in cases where no specific command is given. It is not a great and mature faith that merely does what it is told. Rather- in the words of William Carey as he went out to India as a pioneer missionary - such a faith is one that "attempts great things for God and expects great things from God." It actively gets on with the work to be done, the life to be lived confident in the good-hearted companionship of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Human initiative is not cancelled by redemption; it is heightened by immersion in the flow of God's life. People with a mature vision of God and extensive experience in His ways have no need to be obsessively anxious about doing the right thing. For the most part they will simply know what is right. But their confidence is finally not in a word from the Lord but in the Lord who is with us." - Dallas Willard Hearing God pp. 207-208 All italics are his.

And one more great quote for you...
"It is absolutely essential to the nature of our personal development toward maturity that we venture and be placed at risk, for only risk produces character... [We have all too often tried] to use our ability to hear God as a device for securing a life without risk. When it does not work - as it certainly will not - we begin attacking ourselves, someone else, or even God for being a failure." -Willard p.210

Life really isn't about trying to live in safety but it is about being free and secure in God's love to try, fail, learn and succeed. A risk-free, performance-based Christianity can be a real problem due to how it keeps growth from occurring and stunt God's kingdom from advancing...

His presence

2011-05-04T01:42:00.001-07:00

It is obvious when reading the Bible that the Christian life includes following principles and obedience. However, there is a deeper realm than simply seeking to follow rules that God is after - it is the realm of deep friendship. This does not negate obedience, but it shifts focus from simply trying to obey and applying the right principles to the realm of relationship.

I just watched this clip again from The Matrix: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_dqwkIuUm8 - I really think it illustrates a principle I am trying to make. There is a realm in God's presence that changes everything that I think we (the church) have only begun to scratch the surface of. Let me illustrate a quick example of this with a testimony. A buddy of mine just did some healing meetings in England. After they were done and everyone had already left the church, a man in a wheelchair showed up to the church (he apparently thought the meeting was at a different time). As he came to the door, he found he could not go in and that the church was locked. However, at the door, he felt the presence of the Lord very strongly and was instantly healed - this paralyzed man walked normally out of his wheelchair. There is a principle of praying for the sick - and then there is the realm where God's presence just takes care of it without a Christian in sight. It is like when the man was buried in the same tomb as Elijah but he was resurrected when he touched the dead prophet's body - there is no principle for dead-raisings occurring in this manner. I really believe there is a realm of God's presence that God is wanting to open up upon people that breaks all limitation and boxes that we have put Him in regarding how we think He can work through us.

God's Will

2011-04-05T02:32:00.000-07:00

I might sound a little like Pastor Bill on this post, but this just needs to be said...

I've heard others say it, but: "if sickness is God's will, why go to the doctor to get medication? Wouldn't you be hindering God's will from happening?" Or do we go to the doctor in order to find out what God's will is? Apparently, if they have a medication for it, then it is God's will for the person not to have their sickness; but, if the doctor can't help them, then God wants them sick. So essentially this theological position states: Go to your doctor to discern the will of God for your sickness. Whatever he can do for you is what God's will is for you.

Where in the world does this sort of theology come from? I can't find anything remotely like this in the Bible. What if the doctor is an Atheist? Is an Atheist doctor really the best person to discern what God's will is for your health? If this theology is right, then it would logically follow that getting a second opinion or pursuing alternative health methods must be the equivolant to questioning God or being rebellious to His will.

Do you really think that everything that happens on planet earth is God's will? If so, then when people are abused or killed that God willed that to occur? Using this kind of reasoning, Adam and Eve eating the fruit in the garden must have been God's will too. This is absurd. Would the woman with the issue of blood been healed if she just accepted that this was God's will for her and did not seek Jesus? Would it really have been God's will if Naman were to have died of the leprosy he had instead of going to someone with a healing ministry?

Some might say, "Well, God allowed it." Just because God does not turn us all into zombies so that no one has free will, does not mean that God premeditates the destruction of people or cause all of their medical problems and other hardships. What kind of God is that? "Well, he disciplines his children" some might say because Hebrews 12 talks of that. There is a major difference between a father disciplining his daughter in love and a father wishing his daughter to be molested in order to teach her a lesson. The first is healthy, the second is abhorent. And some in the church would attribute this sort of attrocity to God or would blame God for allowing it. How come these people do not also blame God for allowing Adam and Eve to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the garden? The only thing I can think of is that this must be what happens when people do theology without relationship - those that try to work hard to understand God get a distorted picture of Him. Studying about the Lord was never meant to be seperate from knowing Him. Both study and knowing Him need to be in the lives of Christians!

"I have come that they may have life and have it abundantly." -Jesus

Cultivating New Spiritual Gifts

2011-01-20T12:33:00.000-08:00

I think many have the approach that they either have a spiritual gift or they do not and there is nothing they can do about it... however, that is not how it typically works.

There are certain spiritual gifts that come from the Lord that are hardwired into how we are made. However, there are many that are not but can be cultivated. When I talk to people about healing, it is amazing how many believe that they can not operate in it because they have not seen God heal through them before. However, we all start somewhere. Every gift - administration, teaching, helps, etc. does not come perfectly refined to the person the first few times they try. Very few people with the spiritual gift of teaching sound like they were born to teach the first time they were handed a microphone. If there is a process of growth and refinement in these gifts, why should we not expect there to be a process of learning how to cultivate other gifts like healing on our lives?

So how does one do this? Well, clearly someone who wants the gift of teaching is going to need to step out and actually practice teaching. They are going to need to learn how to fail, try again, learn from their mistakes, learn how to do things better, and so on and so forth. They probably will not be flowing perfectly in their teaching gift for some time. The same is clearly true with praying for sick people. How will someone cultivate a gift for healing if they do not or only rarely pray for sick people? No one would think that a teaching gift would come without practice, learning, failing, and perseverance.

Another clear way gifts come is through relationship with another who has the gift. God did not really ever intend His body to live in a vacuum. This is the beauty of Alcoholics Anonymous - those that are struggling find another who has gained a measure of victory and seek to learn from them. There is a grave danger to the body of Christ when people put others that operate in spiritual gifts that they don't have on a pedestal - it will cause them to think the gift on that person can not come on themselves because they are too far above them. It is also a danger if we treat them with suspicion and have to receive all our breakthroughs only through God alone... God just often does not work that way - He does things through His body.

We would think the alcoholic who refused to get help from others by going to an A.A. meeting because, if God wants him sober, he can do that to him through answered prayer from his couch, would be ridiculous. In the same way, I need to value relationships and seek to learn from those that have the spiritual gift(s) that I want. To feel that I have all of the spiritual gifts possible for me, but to live without ongoing relationship with people with certain gifts, will cause me to miss out on what could have been available for me. My relationship with God is NOT one dimensional. It is lived both with relationship with God and others. The gifts that I want do not come simply by being alone with God (although they do sometimes come that way). Often, they come from the context of relationship with other people.

Someone learns how to teach through getting input and teaching from a teacher. Someone learns hospitality through seeing how others do hospitality. In the same way, we learn healing through being in relationship with those that see healing occur often and see how they use those gifts.

I have reason to suspect the idea that I do not have any certain spiritual gift simply because it did not come to me without some measure of practice and/or relationship with someone else who has it. If I am unwilling to persevere in practice and not seek to learn from others who are operating at a higher level in the gift or to treat others with immediate suspicion because they have a gift that my circle of influence does not have, could cause me to continue to not have that gift.

If a bunch of alcoholics who wanted to change treated every person who was able to get sober with suspicion or skepticism, their odds of ever getting clean would go down drastically. They have shut down their method of getting clean - through relationship with the gift on another's life. Who are you in relationship to help you grow or acquire more of the gifts God wants to give you? How can you practice these gifts to edify the body around you?

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Child-like trust can open options that appear non-existent. Many times, we think there are two choices of action for a circumstance. But child-like trust of the Lord can create whole new options! His best might be different than simply praying for his hand on what looks to be a possible solution! Jehoshaphat had two apparent options in 2 Chron 20 - surrender or fight. Through trust, God brought a whole different option that worked far better than either. God doesn't tend to stay inside the boxes we try to create for Him. Sometimes the answers that are being sought aren't there because the pray-er has limited how God is allowed to answer. Or sometimes even because the focus shifted from trust in the Lord to trust in a means (that He might have even showed) for the provision!

Sometimes we are better off believing something to be impossible (outside of His hand at work) and simply believing God for it and stewarding what He has given us/doing what He shows to do than trying to make things happen in our own strength... Sometimes we can be taking responsibility to try to do what He instead wants us to believe Him for.

Honor vs. Pedestel

2010-12-16T17:23:00.000-08:00

Bill Johnson has some fabulous teaching on honor... but I won't try to duplicate his ideas even though there is some overlap as I write here just to simply lay a bit of a foundation:

Jesus said to "Receive [honor, take in favorably] the prophet in the name of the prophet to receive the prophet's reward. (Mt. 10:41)" This is such a good passage as it shows the way to receive impartation from others: through honoring the gift of God on their life. The danger is that the breakthroughs we may have sought for quite a while can come into a room (i.e. the person with the gift comes into the room), but because I cannot recieve from them (due to jealousy of what they have, offense towards God that they recieved it ahead of me, having a "prove it" attitude like the theif on the cross ["if you really are the Son of God then save us"], or simply not honoring what God has done in that person and just treating them just like someone else), that I could potentially not recieve the impartation that I may have been desperate to recieve, while someone else with much less maturity, who may not have even been seeking for the breakthrough recieves simply by having the posture of honor towards the person with the gift. Sometimes this can cause even a greater spirit of offense...

However, there is another hindrance to recieving the impartation, and that is to put the person on a pedestel. If I believe what God gave them is only for them or that they are somehow so much greater spiritually than I am, I will not be able to recieve the impartation that I otherwise could. I have to actually believe that I can recieve the prophet's reward rather than cut myself off from it through the warped sense of honor that is putting a person on a pedestel. Elijah's gift would have died with him if Elisha did not believe that the mantle could be passed on to him. Bill likes to mention that there is buried treasure from previous revivalists that is just waiting to find a home on another's life...

Now then, in praying for sick people, I try to study how it is that some get healed and others do not seem to. While I certainly would not claim to have any kind of formula, I do think there are principles we can learn to align to to have greater breakthrough. Bill Johnson likes to talk on the importance of sharing the testimony and how it opens the door for the miracle to be repeated. I also hear people share on the importance of having people take their eyes off of the problem and put it on the Lord - which a testimony also can do. But I think there is a third thing too. When a testimony is shared it generally causes the person who is receiving prayer to honor the gift of God on the prayer servant's life. Sometimes if the person recieving prayer can turn the posture of their heart to a place of honor for the person ministering to them they can recieve their "prophet's reward." In the end of Mt. 13, what kept people from their healing was lack of faith which flowed out of lack of honor and offense. Now obviously anyone whose goal is to get sick people to honor them probably is in the wrong area of ministry... however, this can be yet one more reason that sharing testimonies before ministering to someone can open the door up for their breakthrough.

While this is easier to spot in others when you pray for them, it certainly has been a bit disconcerting to realize how much I am having to grow in this area of recieving from others. The last thing I want is the breakthroughs I need to pass me by because I did not honor the gifting on another member of the body of Christ's life. If Jesus could do very little miracles in his hometown due to lack of honor; the last thing I want is to hinder the Lord from working through other members of the body to impact myself due to my lack of honor in recognizing what God has given to them. Thankfully, He is faithful to grow us!

Blessings to you all!

Oh, and just for fun and since every testimony is an invitation to an impartation: a woman got out of her wheelchair over the phone on Tuesday. She could only walk a few steps out of her wheelchair and that would be holding on to a wall and/or her cane. After a prayer over the phone she was walking around without problems. God is good - and I pass along impartation for you all to see Him do the same through you!

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Charles Kraft points out in Christianity With Power that Jesus did not see a miracle as something that happened that was out of the ordinary. Rather, they were normal. To NOT have them regularly was abnormal. If our job as Christians is to be conformed into His image, than perhaps our worldview in regards to the supernatural should shift to His. What would happen if our perspective shifted to surprise at a healing not happening because it is normal for them to do so, rather than surprise that one did? I think I'd find I had more faith if I saw things this way because the healing occurring is the most normal thing in the world; not something I had to make sure I had fasted and prayed and done everything well enough for to maybe see something happen.

Wisdom, Revival, and the Holy Spirit

2010-12-06T23:39:00.000-08:00

This is supposed to be in the format of a sermon... for those of you from Bethel, this type of message will sound a bit familiar. A decent chunk of the wisdom info is from my seminary class... I could quote Dr. Jon Huntzinger as he asked us to essentially come up with with a sermon from his notes of the class. I think you all will enjoy this if you have a few minutes to read it! Blessings to you!

I Introduction
In 1975, two key leaders in America, Bill Bright with Campus Crusade and Loren Cunningham of Youth With A Mission, were praying for revival. On the same night, the Lord gave both of them the same strategy for it to occur. One month later, Francis Schaeffer was also given the same revelation. The Lord showed these men that the key to revival was to train kingdom-oriented people who would become the leaders of the seven different “mountains” of society. These mountains are business, media, arts and entertainment, government, family, religion, and education. As these leaders become major influencers in their mountain, cultural transformation would occur to help bring about sustained revival in every sphere of society. This is what God is calling His people to do; to become kingdom-oriented and arise to positions of prominence in society. But how can each of us do this? We will need wisdom and the Holy Spirit.

Wisdom, as defined by Dr. Huntzinger, is not simply having intellect or information. Rather, throughout the Bible, wisdom is seen both by knowledge of creation and the Scriptures, but also by ability to do God’s will both in one’s personal life as well as in community life with excellence. This idea of wisdom is different than many have seen it: the wise person is not necessarily the person who sits around thinking all day but does not seem to do much with the ideas they have. Rather, wisdom requires practical application in one’s life and can be proven by how things are done with excellence. Since the idea that wisdom comes from the Bible and study of how creation works is nothing new, I will focus on the second part of wisdom: that pertaining to excellence in ability. This ability does ultimately come from the Spirit.

The Bible shows a deep connection between wisdom and the Spirit. Since the source of wisdom ultimately is the Holy Spirit, this should come as no surprise. Since our source as the Body of Christ for wisdom needs to be the Holy Spirit, it would be wise to study how wisdom and the Spirit were connected in the Old Testament to help bring about promotion in one of the seven mountains of society.

II Wisdom and the Old Testament
Throughout the Old Testament, we can find examples of people who used wisdom from God’s Spirit to become leaders in bringing cultural transformation to their sphere of society. Joseph is a very clear example of that. In Genesis 41:37-39, Pharaoh recognizes that God is the one that makes known incredible wisdom to Joseph and, as a result, promotes him to second in command of his nation. Through the Spirit giving wisdom and supernatural revelation, Joseph receives promotion to be able to be one of the leaders of the government mountain. He uses his opportunity to lead to bring radical cultural transformation – if it were not for his leading food would not have been saved in the bountiful years and Egypt would have become famine stricken like the rest of the world when the lean years came. However, even before his promotion, Joseph is constantly using his wisdom to become leader of whatever situation he comes to: whether it is Potiphar’s house, the jail, or the palace.

Wisdom is seen in not only the supernatural, but also in the natural. In Exodus 35:30-36:1, Moses declares to the people that God has filled Bezalel and Oholiab with His Spirit and given them wisdom in becoming excellent craftsmen. They were to use this wisdom, or practical ability, in the religious mountain to make a sanctuary for the Lord. However, I am sure they also probably used their ability in other mountains of society and were clearly leaders in architecture for the time period.

In Deuteronomy 34:9, it records that Joshua had the Spirit of wisdom given to him when Moses laid hands on him. Numbers 27:18-23 records the event and shows that wisdom and the Spirit allowed Joshua to excel in leadership and become the leader of the government mountain for the Hebrew people.

Daniel is known not simply for having the Spirit and wisdom but having outstanding wisdom according to Daniel 5:14. He has tremendous ability to do his skill with excellence by not simply interpreting the dreams but also to tell what the dreams are first! This wisdom of the Spirit enables him to rise to prominence in the government mountain where he is constantly finding himself as a leader. Belshazzar makes him third in command (Daniel 5:29) and when he is quickly overthrown, Darius makes him a key leader. After Darius sees the supernatural hand of the Lord on Daniel in deliverance from the lions, Darius uses his influence to declare revival throughout the country (Daniel 6:26-27). Through the Spirit and wisdom, Daniel rises to prominence in his country – despite the overwhelming odds of being a foreigner in exile – and is able to influence the government mountain such that it influences every other realm of society.

III Jesus and Wisdom
I want to shift now from seeing Old Testament leaders that were filled with wisdom that received great promotion in their sphere of society to how Jesus interacted with wisdom. In the New Testament, Jesus is clearly seen as a man of wisdom and the Spirit. However, there was also a major change that He made to Hebrew culture. The Hebrews felt wisdom resided in the Torah, understanding creation, and in practical ability. In regards to the first part, however, Jesus changed everything. This is a huge issue as biblical interpretation is such a major issue in the church today. Many liberal theologians would say that the meaning for each passage resides with the reader. This can be quite dangerous as the Bible can mean anything to anyone. Many conservative scholars would say that meaning resides in the text or in authorial intent. This also would be what the Pharisees believed to be true. However, Jesus emphasizes that wisdom comes from the Spirit rather than simply study of creation or the Torah. Jesus has the Spirit and He tells the Pharisees that the focus of their search for life is not going to be found simply through study of the Torah. It will be found in relationship with Him (John 5:36-40) and ultimately through the Spirit that rests on Him that gives life. Jesus redirects their attention from merely searching the text for wisdom to relationship with God and understanding His ways. Jesus’ redirect is for us as well, we should not simply try to read the Bible to get wisdom for our mountain, rather the Bible is a place to encounter the Lord and grow in relationship with Him to grow in understanding His wisdom to ultimately better impact the mountain we are called to.

Since Jesus redefined wisdom to be inherent to the Spirit and the ways of God, it is interesting to note that just like in the Old Testament, the power of God is again related to wisdom. This makes sense, as this is one of the ways God works in this world. When Jesus performs exorcisms in Matthew 12:22-32 when the Pharisees are watching and in Matthew 15:21-28 with the Syrophoenician woman’s daughter, he is identified by the title of “Son of David” during the exorcisms. The name “Son of David” actually is a tribute to Him being a man of wisdom in the line of David and Solomon as the Jewish historian Josephus records that Solomon was commonly viewed as an exorcist.

Deliverance was not the only aspect of the power of God that Jesus did that was seen as wisdom. Jesus healed the blind man as the “Son of David” (Mt. 20:29-34). In Matthew 11, Jesus gives an apologetic to a crowd explaining who he is. He declares “wisdom is proved right by her actions” after declaring the lame walking and blind seeing confirms his divine origin. He shares this knowing that wisdom involves practical ability (like power flowing through him) and that if God’s wisdom is in Him that he is not the drunkard and glutton that he is accused of being. Similarly, God’s wisdom in us will help to be a defense against accusation.

Jesus obviously also showed wisdom in a variety of other occurrences teaching the ways of God through parables and through how he dealt with the Pharisees. Again, though, we see the importance of the Spirit and knowing the ways of God as essential to what wisdom is all about.

IV Paul and Wisdom
Paul emphasizes the role of the Spirit regarding wisdom. This is most clearly seen in Ephesians 1:15-23 where Paul prays for believers to receive the “Spirit of wisdom and revelation.” His purpose is so that they would know the Lord better, know who they are, the hope of what they are called to, and the power that has been released to them. When Paul prays for wisdom for the saints, he emphasizes identity and power. This is extremely crucial. As we know who we are in Him and realize what He has given us access to through relationship with the Spirit, it is amazing what can happen through our lives in the different mountains of society that we are called to. God is looking for people he can promote and give His ideas to through relationship.

V How Do We Access This Wisdom
The first major key in accessing the wisdom is to understand who we are in identity as his children. When we understand who we are, we will know what we have access to in relationship. When I understand that I am a child of the king, I will realize that it is very natural to expect to have power flow through me. I will expect that my Father would want to share insights with me. It will not be something that I have to strive, perform, or anything else for. Rather, it will be a natural byproduct of a healthy relationship with him. Paul states in 1 Corinthians 2 that the Spirit makes known the wisdom of God because the Spirit knows the mind of God. Then Paul states that the Corinthian church has access to the wisdom of God because they have the mind of Christ! This is obviously not only for the Corinthian church, because of our relationship with the Spirit; we have access to the wisdom of God! Therefore, it should not be uncommon for us to receive ideas from him as we shift our hearts to a place of believing to receive.

Secondly, while God directly gives wisdom, God also works through his body on earth. This can look like a simple prayer of impartation of gifting to being in relationship with the person to learn as much as possible. Therefore, it is wise to have many different people in our lives that can give us wisdom. Throughout the Bible, we can see God working through these ways.

Bezalel in Exodus 35:34 is said to have the ability to teach others the same grace from the Spirit that he has: impartation flows through others with gifting far better than trying to learn everything on our own.

Deuteronomy 34:9 and Numbers 27:18-23 show that Joshua was given the Spirit of wisdom to lead based on Moses’ prayer of impartation. However, he also likely learned a tremendous amount through relationship, as he was Moses second-in-command for many years. Therefore, Joshua is a good example of growth both through relationship and through a prayer of impartation.

The disciples and their relationship with Jesus are another classic example. After spending time with Jesus, they eventually began to minister in the ways that He did, through the wisdom of healing the sick and casting out devils.

VI Conclusion: The Need for Stewardship
Regardless of the position we currently find ourselves in, we can all steward where we are at through using wisdom. As we steward what is given to us, regardless of our setting, it gives God the opportunity to promote us. Joseph is a classic example of this. He used wisdom in each of his settings and was promoted by the Lord to leader in Potiphar’s house, in jail, and in the palace. As we do whatever we are doing with excellence, it allows the Lord to promote us in His time to become leaders in the mountain he has called us to.

The world is hungry for true wisdom. If our focus is on cultivating that, God will open up doors to become leaders in the mountains where He is calling us. Daniel did not have to open up doors – his excessive wisdom prompted the king eagerness to hear what he had to say. Similarly, if our focus shifts from self-promotion to cultivation of wisdom, when the promotion comes we will have wisdom to offer those that are entrusted to us in leadership. However, if our focus is simply self-promotion, if we are to get the promotion, we may not keep it for long due to lack of having any wisdom to offer those that are entrusted to our care.

More Quotes

2010-11-27T16:45:00.000-08:00

"There are many people who call themselves leaders but are really just puppets of the masses. Their strings are pulled by popular opinion as they search for the path of least resistance. Their goal is to make decisions that please as many people as possible. But what they refuse to understand is that when you fear the people, you are not leading them; they are leading you. It is important to understand that the organizations we are called to lead can become idols, something we bow down to instead of serve and lead. Jack Taylor puts it this way, 'An idol is something you have to check with before you say yes to God.'" - Kris Vallotton Heavy Rain p. 119-120

"Men don't follow titles. They follow courage!" -William Wallace in Braveheart

"Until we have something to die for, we really never live. Jesus put it best: 'For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses His life for my sake will find it.' Everyone's life is terminal! We are all going to die; we just don't know when. The real question is, will we really ever live? I am not talking about taking up space and sucking up air; I mean really living, making a difference, pushing past our fear and taking hold of our destiny. Until we deal with death, we don't really ever live."-KV HR p.121

"The dogs of doom often stand at the doors o our destiny. They start barking when we are about to cross the threshold of our God-given purpose. Most people never fully enter into their promised land because they allow fear to dictate the boundaries of their future. They reduce their lives to accommodate the dogs and mistake the silence for peace. For example, if you are afraid to fly, so you never get on a plane, you won't feel scared because you have scaled back your life to silence the dogs. You may think you are absolutely tranquil, but the truth is that you are still full of fear. Subconsciously, you know that flying will awaken the sleeping monster, and he will torment you until you slay him or obey him." KV HR p.127

"The obvious point here is that true humility isn't feeling bad about yourself or thinking you are little, insignificant or anything else demeaning. True humility begins with remembering the source of your greatness... Humility is not only compatile wih greatness; it is the process of significance. We see this clearly in Jesus' statement: 'whoever exalts himself shall be humbled; and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted' (Mt. 23:12). According to Christ, the act of humility is the pathway to promotion. Jesus was not criticizing the desire for greatness; He was encouraging it by showing how to attain it." KV HR p. 140-141 italics are the author's.

"There are lots of leaders who think they re empowering their people when they are actually just absent. Empowering others and being absent from them are not the same thing! A father who rarely comes home would never be mistaken for being an empowering presence in his household. A leader who hardly ever comes out of his office or seldom interacts with this team is like a father who never comes home. He may think that he is being empowering by removing the negative element of control from the culture. But people don't necessarily feel powerful just because nobody is resisting them. More often than not, their leader's absence leaves them feeling lost, abandoned and unsure of what they are supposed to be doing. Empowering leaders have a proactive, not inactive, ability. They do not simply remove the controlling dynamics; they establish positive elements of communication, encouragement, direction, praise, and cooperation. Incidentally, absent leaders can be just as controlling as leaders that get into everyone else's business. We most often think of controlling leaders as micromanagers or angry people who rule through fear and intimidation. Actually, one of the most common ways to control people is to withdraw and withhold information... Jesus equated slavery with withholding information [see John 15:15]." -KV 143-144

"Empowering leaders make decisions with people, not just for people. When we withhold information from our people or tell them just what they need to know to get their job done, we produce slave camps in which one person does all the thinking. This is religion on steroids. Religion wants to tame people, to domesticate the masses and get them to keep the rules. But new ideas are never discovered behind the iron bars of the zoo." KV p. 145

Quotes

2010-11-25T00:50:00.000-08:00

"The problem with legalism is whatever is on the inside always breaks out." -Dallas Willard

"What I have written about is a model that can help us become functioning human beings. But if that is the final goal, we have sold ourselves short. We were made to love, and the fully functioning person is one who takes his bonded, separate, forgiving, adult self into a world and denies that self for the sake of others. We have seen how this does not mean being without a person inside; it means having such a full one that it can be imparted to others." - Henry Cloud p. 253-254 Changes That Heal

"What is it to love God and your neighbor? It is absorption in what is good for God and good for your neighbor. That is a holy person... God wants to grow us so He can empower us to do whatever we want. Yes, I said that correctly. God wants us so conformed that our will is His." -Dallas Willard

"There is a major difference between my vision where I might love a few people on the way to getting me to my goal and a vision that is compelled forward by the necessity for other people's lives to be changed. The latter seems to avoid jealousy of others who are successful so much more as the person cares much less about who does the vision as much as that the vision is coming to pass." -Me

"God delights people to be doing what they were made to be. Because God made us that way." - Jack Hayford

"Someone might argue that if you base your relationship with God on an experience, you could be deceived. That is so true! But, on the other hand, if you study the Bible and it doesn't lead you into an encounter with he Almighty, then you are already deceived! The moment theologians, or anybody else for that matter, abandon relationship with God as the primary mission in understanding the Bible, they have already begun to enter into deception. - Kris Vallotton Heavy Rain p. 37

"Leaders in denomenationalism preach to convince people of truth. They are under the impression that it is their responsibility to persuade people what to believe. Leaders in apostleships... train people to be dependent on the Holy Spirit because, ultimately, He is the one who is responsible for their maturity in Christ. - KV HR p. 36.

"If we don't understand how to recognize and align ourselves under true spiritual authority, we may build bigger armies, develop better strategies and buy more powerful weapons, but we still lose! It just never occurs to us that if we support (honor) our leaders, we will inherit their victories. But this is how leadership is designed to work in an apostleship. In an apostleship, honor between the leaders and those who follow creates a relationship in which the leaders' ceiling becomes the followers' floor." -KV HR p. 45-46 (My response: so true - I saw so much more breakthrough in healing through learning from others who had breakthrough than simply trying pursue God harder on my own)

"The Israelites lived a life of incredible blessing during the years of Joseph's rule, not because they deserved it, but because Joseph did (see Gen 37-38)! Why did Joseph deserve this blessing? What qualified him...? It wasn't his intelligence, education, charisma, people skills, or any other quality by which human beings generally judge a person's leadership ability. Joseph rose to prominence for three reasons: 1) he lived supernaturally demonstrated through his ability to interpret dreams; 2) in a dream he was called by God Himself to be a leader; 3) and he passed every test of character on the way to his calling. Divine callings, proven character, and a supernatural lifestyle are the three primary marks of a person with true spiritual authority." KV HR p.52

"That was the most clever, biblically sound, passionately put, summons to supernatural ministry I have ever heard." - Jack Hayford (spoken to the Four Square denominations pastor's conference in respect to Bill Johnson's preaching connecting Rom. 12:2 to the Lord's Prayer - see The Supernatural Power of a Transformed Mind by BJ. Jack had a CD of Bill's message given free of charge to every attendee of the conference because of how important the message given was. He wanted to make sure the message would sink in to the pastors).

"Don't leave your wounds for another day... If you have discomfort from a wound, people look for a sin to comfort. Because God will only give you temporary comfort while the tormentors are on you." Bruce Wilkinson - spoken to Four Square pastors at the annual Autumn Leadership Conference about forgiveness.

"You won't have much love without gifts flowing around you. It just gets cut down to being really nice. But being really nice and love are not the same thing. Love is always tough. You want to see love, look at Jesus on the cross. And it goes in a community where the gifts are flowing." -Dallas Willard

Encountering God & Manifestations of the Spirit

2010-11-01T12:19:00.000-07:00

The world is hungry for an authentic encounter with God. When one encounters the living God, however, it is remarkable what may happen. The Bible records many such incidences of the Spirit of the Lord coming upon someone and the results. The ancient Hebrews believed that encountering God to be synonymous with receiving the answers to one’s prayers. This is also seen through the woman with the issue of blood believing that if she could just touch Jesus that she would be healed (Mt. 9:21). If encountering the Lord is so important for answered prayer, and ultimately simply for relationship, one of the biggest dangers would be to be unaware of His presence. Yet throughout the Bible not recognizing the Lord is a common response to His arrival (Gen. 28:16, Luke 24:31, John 20:15). There are obviously common ways that the Holy Spirit encounters people today that the most in the church recognize – tears, repentance, and so forth. And truly those can be or are responses to the Holy Spirit. However, there are a variety of “outside the box” manifestations of the Holy Spirit that are occurring in churches today that should be looked at – like shaking, falling, laughter, and drunkenness in the Spirit. Many do not accept them in church simply because they are not the manifestations of the Holy Spirit that they are used to or comfortable with seeing. However, if these manifestations are truly from the Lord, it would be a grave danger to have had God encounter people, but the churches’ rejection of it based on not perceiving or being comfortable with it. To test the validity of outside the box manifestations, both biblical and historical evidence is needed to come to an adequate conclusion.

Biblical Precedence for Manifestations

To find the authenticity of the manifestations that come through encountering God, trembling, falling, laughter, and drunkenness should be traced in the Bible along with sharing the dangers of requiring a biblical precedent or requiring man’s system of order on them. Trembling or shaking is a very common manifestation in the Bible. Buildings shook due to the Lord's presence (Isaiah 6 and Acts 4:31), every living creature trembles in Ez. 38:20, demons tremble (James 2:19), and the temple guards shook and fell in Mt. 28:4. The prophet Daniel was left trembling after encountering the Lord in Daniel 10:10. There are many other recorded instances of shaking or trembling including Exodus 19:16, Isaiah 64:2, Psalm 114:7, Psalm 99:1, Jeremiah 5:22, and so forth.

Falling is also a very biblical phenomenon. The Bible records that after John had his vision of Jesus he "fell… as though dead" in Revelation 1:17. Ezekiel also would often fall like he was dead and then later be picked up or carried away by the Spirit (Ez 1:28, 2:2, 3:12-14, 23-24, and others). When Paul was on his Damascus Road journey, he encountered the power of God and fell to the ground (Acts 9:4). When Jesus was being arrested (John 18:6) and was questioned as to his identity, he declared who he was which prompted the guards to fall over backwards. 1 Samuel 19:24 records that the Spirit of the Lord came on Saul and he laid on the ground for a substantial period of time.

The obvious biblical references to laughter would be where the word joy is used. It simply is not accurate to define joy as only an internal emotion that cannot be externally manifested. This runs the risk of redefining joy as peace. Therefore, to think that smiling and laughter could not occur when one has joy is utterly ridiculous! If His presence comes with fullness of joy (Psalm 16:11), there should be no surprise at extreme gladness and laughter being a manifestation of encounter.

Drunkenness by the Spirit is also seen in the Bible. In the Old Testament, Hannah was in a state of fervent prayer for a son. When the priest saw her praying, he thought she was drunk, but she assured him that she had not had wine or beer, but only was in a state of intense intercession (1 Sam. 1). It appears the most knowledgeable person in Hebrew society (the priest) thought this instance of intense intercession appeared exactly like drunkenness.

In the New Testament, Acts 2 records that the apostles appeared to be drunk to those who saw them speak in tongues. Common sense would indicate that just because someone speaks another language, this would not make them appear to be drunk. If someone saw another from a different part of the world speak their native language, they would not think they were drunk. They would think they spoke another language. Similarly, the apostles appeared drunk and this was something beyond speaking in tongues.

A huge danger in the body of Christ is to require a biblical precedent for every manifestation of God. Throughout the Bible there is a history of “outside the box” encounters. When Mary encountered the Holy Spirit, she became pregnant. She would have had difficulty explaining biblical precedence for this! When Jacob encountered God, he found himself in a wrestling match that left him limping for life. Even 1 Corinthians 12 and 14, the chapters devoted to the gifts of the Spirit, are not written as a theological treatise on spiritual gifts, but are a part of a Gospel written to help bring correction to a church that was already operating in those gifts – even though some of them had no prior biblical precedent. The true danger as Bill Johnson notes, is not that we will add a few more manifestations to the list of what is acceptable, but that there still is a list. The danger of keeping God in a box and not accepting the signs that are manifestations that He may give that point to Him is problematic. If God is attempting to give signs to reveal Himself, it is very dangerous to simply not accept them because they are outside of traditional thought of how He works.

Another major concern in the body of Christ is related to order. Some would say different manifestations are acceptable as long as they are done in order. However, their idea of order may look differently than God’s! Decently and in order in the OT looked more like letting the Ark of the Covenant fall in mud in 2 Samuel 6 then protecting it from doing so when the oxen carrying it stumbled. In the same passage, dancing around wildly in one’s undergarment as David did was not considered out of order or in excess, while open disgust of this brought punishment from the Lord. In 2 Chron. 7, if priests were unable to be functional to do their jobs when the presence of the Lord was thick, then why should it be thought that decent and in order will be church without disruptions when the presence of the Lord is manifest in a place? Just as there is major concern in having the acceptable manifestation list be based on comfort of people and not God, so there is a major danger in defining order based on man’s concept and not the Lord’s.

Manifestations in History

Due to the scope of this topic, manifestations in history will be listed from the sixteen hundreds onward. In the 1600s, the Quakers and then a century later, the Shakers became movements in the church. Both groups received their name due to how they trembled in the presence of the Lord.

The 1700s are known for the Great Awakening and many of the heroes of faith were known for having a variety of Holy Spirit manifestations in their ministries. George Whitefield records when looking at one of the crowds that he preached to that “some were struck pale as dead, others wringing their hands, others lying on the ground…, and most lifting up their eyes to heaven and crying out to God.” Charles Chauncy records that in Whitefield’s meetings, multitudes “fell down, swooned away, …were like persons in fits, …[had] visions, …trances, …loud hearty laughing, …[and] screaming and shrieking to the greatest degree.”
John Wesley, also had Holy Spirit manifestations in his meetings as well. Wesley records that as his preaching began in one meeting that “immediately one, and another and another sunk to the earth. They dropped on every side as if thunderstruck.”

Jonathan Edwards, a contemporary of Whitefield and Wesley, records people in his meetings laying in trances having visions of heaven. Falling was so common in his meetings that he referred to it as fainting. He describes one of his meetings as being “full of nothing but outcries, faintings, and the like.”
The 1800s also had Holy Spirit manifestations. Kentucky’s Cane Ridge Revival, which was a part of the Second Great Awakening, in one meeting, had three thousand that were slain in the Spirit. Loud laughter was very common as were bodies shaking or jerking. Ecstatic laughter seizing the whole congregation occurred in some services. The unbelievers that came to the meetings were convinced that the origination of what they saw was God. By 1805, it was estimated that over half of the Christians in Kentucky had experienced these phenomenon personally. Since that day, Vincent Synan records that most major revivals have experienced Holy Spirit manifestations regardless of their denomination or doctrine.

The University of Georgia experienced revival in 1800-1801 as a part of the Second Great Awakening. Their revival also had people falling, in trances, and shaking.

Charles Finney was one of the greatest revivalists of the Second Great Awakening. He noted that in one of his meetings in Utica, New York that over four hundred people fell out of their chairs while he was preaching. On another occasion, he felt electricity flowing like waves through him and immediately after one of the serious elders could not stop a very deep laughter.

In the late 1800s, Maria Woodworth-Etter, a major revivalist, recorded people falling in her meetings on many occasions as well as a whole host of other manifestations. Regarding the manifestations of her ministry, the historian Roberts Liardon noted, “Listen, have you ever put your finger in a light socket and remained still? How much more when you touch God! When God touches you, you will react. If you say, ‘Well, what about the extremes?’ I say, ‘Why are we so concerned about the ditch when we should be looking at the highway.’”

Throughout the 1900s, manifestations of the Holy Spirit have also been common. The Azusa Street Revival of the early part of the century recorded many instances of people falling under the power. Oswald Chambers, the Baptist from Scotland, records praying for someone and having holy laughter. A.B. Simpson, the healing revivalist who founded the Christian and Missionary Alliance, records in his journal of having had holy laughter where he did not stop laughing for more than an hour straight. The Shantung Revival of China in the 1920s, considered the greatest Baptist revival, also had a variety of Holy Spirit manifestations even though some have sought to rewrite history to remove them. Oral Roberts and many of the other healing evangelists of the century were known for falling and other manifestations in their ministries.

In the latter part of the century, Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship, the Vineyard in general, as well as many others have been known for manifestations as well. Since the new millennium has come, the International House of Prayer and Bethel Church of Redding, California have been known for manifestations of the Spirit.

After studying manifestations of the Holy Spirit both biblically and historically, it is obvious that this has been a common way that God has encountered his people. The largest problem with the rejection of manifestations is that one may miss out on encountering God or perceive that what He is doing in an encounter may not truly be Him. While it is possible for someone to have a demonic or fleshly manifestation along these lines, the real danger is missing an aspect of the relationship that He created for His people. If broad spectrums of denominations believe that the essence of the Christian walk is a relationship with the Lord, there is a grave danger if the Believer attempts to limit how God is allowed to have relationship with them due to what they are comfortable with. In regards to church history, there is also a grave danger of rewriting history to believe that manifestations are simply a current phenomenon. If the heroes of the Christian faith had ministries that involved manifestations, than ministries that do today should not be treated without honor simply due to the ways God encounters his people in their ministries.

Endnotes:
Note: it appears that my footnote numbers didn't copy into here. If you want to know which endnote goes where, let me know.

John McKendrics. Lecture notes for Christian Theology III (2010).
Wesley Campbell. Welcoming a Visitation of the Holy Spirit(Lake Mary, FL: Creation House, 1996), 92.
Kevin Dedmon. Lecture for Southern California School of the Supernatural (September 24-25, 2010).
Bill Johnson. When Heaven Invades Earth (Shippensburg, PA: Destiny Image, 2003), 141-143.
Kevin Dedmon. Unlocking Heaven(Shippensburg, PA: Destiny Image Publishers, 2009), 87-88.
John Crowder. The Ecstasy of Loving God(Shippensburg, PA: Destiny Image Publishers, 2009), 140.
Eddie Hyatt. 2000 Years of Charismatic Christianity(Lake Mary, FL: Charisma House, 2002), 110.
Guy Chevreau. Catch the Fire(Toronto: HarperCollins Publishers, 1995), 97-98.
Eddie Hyatt. 2000 Years of Charismatic Christianity(Lake Mary, FL: Charisma House, 2002), 102.
Eddie Hyatt. 2000 Years of Charismatic Christianity(Lake Mary, FL: Charisma House, 2002), 111.
Vinson Synan. The Holiness-Pentecostal Tradition(Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdman’s Publishing Company, 1997), 12-14.
Vinson Synan. The Holiness-Pentecostal Tradition(Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdman’s Publishing Company, 1997), 13.
John Crowder. The Ecstasy of Loving God(Shippensburg, PA: Destiny Image Publishers, 2009), 140.
Robert Liardon. God’s Generals(New Kensington, PA: Whitaker House, 1996), 51-54.
Robert Liardon. God’s Generals(New Kensington, PA: Whitaker House, 1996), 147.
John Crowder. The Ecstasy of Loving God(Shippensburg, PA: Destiny Image Publishers, 2009), 141.
Crowder, Loving, 150.
Mary Crawford and Randy Clark. The Shantung Revival(Mechanicsburg, PA: Global Awakening, 2005), 147.

Quote

2010-10-27T21:19:00.000-07:00

I read this quote... I never realized I loved Ezekiel 1 so much...

"There is a beautiful analogy which can be drawn from Ezekiel’s vision of the fiery
chariot. To some scholars this serves as a metaphor for God’s powerful throne. It is
ominous and intimidating. You will notice that it exudes power, tremendous power.
Images of wheels within wheels, peals of thunder. The ancients believed that if one
could touch this throne they would become a conduit of God’s power into the human
realm. This is what was believed that Jesus did, this was seen as the validation of his heavenly authority. Jesusʼ journey toward righteousness put him in contact with God’s powerful, holy throne.

The wheel in Ezekielʼs vision is unique. Can you see that this throne is designed to
move in several directions, what does that mean? It moves to and fro, it is not a fixed throne. Why would it move?

The idea that one must make an arduous journey to get to God is mitigated by the
reality that God is making effort to get to us.

Godʼs throne is a moving throne of presence and power. which is dispatched as answer
to our need. To the ancient Hebrew people, touching God’s throne meant answer, if this interpretation of Ezekiel’s throne is correct, imagine the comfort we can glean from the knowledge that God’s power is here and ready, right now, that is awesome!" - John McKendricks

***************
I put this as my facebook status a little while back and am putting it up here so I'll remember what I put.

I get the feeling that many are trying to attain the breakthrough that God wants to give freely if they instead would shift their hearts to compassion for how those around would be helped by the breakthrough. God tends to empower compassion more than self-promotion.

This is also what kills spiritual jealousy and puts us in a place to recieve impartation. If my focus is on who can be blessed by what I recieve than I am no longer threatened by what gift someone else carries that I don't. It also kills any offense I may have against God for what I am jealous of someone else having. I just desperately need the impartation so that more can be touched. Hunger for God and love for others will compel me to go places and do things that simple natural desire never will. It also will with far less fear as it no longer is about me but compelled by seeing the goodness of God expressed and compassion for those in need. Love is what casts out fear.

Healing

2010-10-06T02:22:00.000-07:00

Basics of a healing ministry - this might be a little repetitive from some of the prior notes, but it never hurts to go over this stuff if you want to see God heal people.

#1 I am not allowed to make healing (or the healings I have not seen happen) difficult because of what I have not seen God do yet. Healing is not difficult for Him and it is not difficult for Him to do through you or me. As Curry Blake has said, "the only hindrance to having a healing ministry is believing there is a hindrance." If healing is as hard as I believe, I am not allowed to believe healing (or the healings I have not seen occur yet) is difficult for God or Him to do through me (believing healing is difficult, rare, impossible, etc. is the best way to kill your chance of having a healing ministry). Coming up with untrue ideas of healing or of God when we don't see Him heal someone is one of the best ways to believe healing to be difficult, rare, or impossible - avoid the temptation to do so.

Cultivating his presence is a much better response to getting more breakthrough - not coming up with wrong beliefs based on disappointments. Radical hunger for Him often releases a grace to see things from His perspective. This naturally creates an aligning of our hearts with His and grows the annointing on your life - which is a really good way to see His heart for healing expressed through you - also, hanging around someone that has a lot of breakthrough helps as well.

#2 I am not allowed to ask God to do what He gave me authority to declare. Nobody is ever recorded asking God to heal anything in the prayers for the sick that were recorded in the Bible. I don't know that I am really going to improve on the way Jesus prayed. If he and the apostles took authority over sickness, asking God to do what He gave me authority to command probably isn't going to get me better results than Jesus and the apostles had. Asking is not an improvement to His commanding. I don't think I have ever seen God heal anything when I asked him to. There has been very large numbers of healings that have occurred through taking authority over sickness, though. And authority is for every believer - unless you don't believe it is for you. Then you just gave up an incredible gift He has given you.

#3 Take my eyes off of me. The best way to kill my faith is to see how much I have. Another good way is to try to see if I think I am good enough or read my Bible enough to see a healing happen.

#4 Believe that God actually wants to heal people when you pray. You and I do not have the right to believe that God doesn't want to heal the person that is in front of us. Because He does. Please do not come up with reasons before you pray to disqualify yourself from seeing God touch who is in front of you. If you were getting prayer and were sick, you would not want the people who are praying for you thinking of reasons why it won't manifest when they pray because of their own issues.

#5 Steward what is given to you. Do not make an identity out of what He can do through you. As we get comfortable with seeing certain healings happen, it is important to not make the ones that we have not seen difficult in our minds. That's why we need to hold on to what He did through us knowing that our gifting is not us - it is Him in us. Thanksgiving is the best way to keep things healthy to be positioned for more (or a great way to steward when the healing process starts to see the full manifestation come when praying).

#6 A healing does not validate your life. It does not prove things are right with you and God. It does not show all is right in your walk with the Lord. It is not something you attained. All it means is that God loves people and wants to heal them and He likes to partner with us.

#7 Love the sick person in front of you. It is amazing how many more healings can come when I can love the sick person in front of me rather than be self-absorbed when praying.

#8 Keep your awareness of God bigger than the problem in front of you - Bill Johnson. This is huge. And it is not just a healing issue, it is an all of life issue and is so crucial to living a hope-filled life. Surround yourself with influences that expand your view of God. I'd recommend listening to David Hogan testimonies to expand your view of what normal Christianity is supposed to look like :).

#9 Share a testimony of God healing before praying. It is AMAZING how many healings come if I can share a quick healing testimony first. The testimony of Jesus IS the spirit of prophesy (according to Revelation).

#10 Lastly, go for it. You don't need to be perfect and this is not a formula. It is just more of a troubleshooting if things aren't going right. We learn by doing - take risk!! And invite Holy Spirit and the (healing) angels to help!

Have fun watching God heal people! Take lots of risk!! And fall in love with the Healer - He's a whole lot better than what He can do through you or me!

Performing, healing, etc.

2010-09-21T21:21:00.000-07:00

It is very important for people to discover and believe for their dreams. It also is crucial to put into action a plan for that. I think the dreams God has placed in us are a little like Ladd's view of the kingdom. They are both for now and to be fully realized later. Therefore, there needs to be a plan of action of how one can begin to build towards the vision (allowing God to modify) without seeing people as stepping stones on the way... the dream can in some form also be lived out today! For example, my passion is healing. Even if I had no speaking engagements, I can still find people everywhere that are sick... the dream of seeing God heal people can happen today. The dream is happening each time in some form when I pray for someone.

It is important the vision gets instilled (although God obviously may modify it), it is also very important to pursue it. However, there is a major difference between performing to try to advance my kingdom and seeking first His kingdom and loving those He puts in my path. Performance is the antithesis of love... one seeks to take from another while another seeks to give. Perhaps this is why it is so important to get fresh encounters with God's love... 1 John 4:8 shows the link between knowing God through experience and walking in His love.

As a side point - in regards to healing - I am convinced faith flows through love far better than through trying to prove something theologically or simply wanting to have a sweet testimony to share. Jesus is often seen to be filled with compassion for the sick person He prays for. However, if the love that is expressed is not simply the love or compassion that we would naturally have for someone who is going through distress, but rather is the love of the Father - through encountering and giving out THAT love, it is amazing how the healings can exponentially increase!

Faith & Healing

2010-08-03T00:16:00.001-07:00

What if healing is as hard as we believe? If God responds to what I believe, if I believe healing is really difficult, rare, and that I have to have tons of faith to see it happen what will I see happen in my experience? But what if I believe that healing is really easy for God, and that faith the amount of a mustard seed is all it takes to move a mountain? What if Jesus was right that mustard-seed sized faith is all it takes? If God responds to what I believe and I started to believe that, what might happen in my experience?

I think the bigger block to healing is not lack of faith, but rather being self-absorbed during prayer. At least it has been for me way too often. The best way to kill faith is to analyze it. Faith flows through love. If I can develop a heart of compassion for the individual rather than go introspective to hunt out sin or try to earn a healing, it is amazing what can happen. I do not have the right to not believe that God does not want to heal someone because of something in me. Believe me, you do not want someone praying for you that does not think God will answer them because of something they have or have not done. You would rather have someone pray for you that still believes God wants to touch you despite their own weaknesses. I do not have the right to believe God does not want to heal because of my own life. God wants His worshipers to worship in Spirit and truth... while I realize it was not contextually applied to healing it does work here - He wants us filled with the Spirit and believing He wants to move through us. Both are important but even if I don't feel filled, I still don't have the right to believe that God doesn't want to work through me.

If my focus shifts from being self-absorbed during prayer to focus on love for the person, it is amazing what can happen. If I can shift from asking God for a healing to taking authority (commanding) as Jesus and the apostles did, it is amazing what can happen. I do not know if I ever seen something get healed when one asks God. I don't even know that it is biblical to do so because I don't ever see a prayer of asking in regards to healing recorded in the Bible. However, if I can command, focused on love for the individual, keeping my awareness of God bigger than the problem (as Bill Johnson would say) through focusing on just how easy it is for God to heal it, it might be amazing what might occur. It might be even more amazing if one were to keep praying for multiple people each day for healing until there was a high percentage of healings each day... sometimes simply praying for one or two people just gets you reconnected into the realm of the Spirit. After that, you are ready to go. But too many get discouraged at this point from thinking an answer to prayer may come when the reality is that they were just getting reconnected to the realm of the Spirit. Now is when the breakthroughs really start coming!

As a side note I saw this on a facebook page: "It is a law of the human mind that I can act myself into believing faster than I can believe myself into acting" - John G. Lake

2010-06-30T22:48:00.000-07:00

In the process of growth, God often gives us opportunity to retake tests. If we failed them the first time, He gives opportunity to retake the tests. The Israelites in the desert kept walking around the Sinai peninsula until they could pass the tests. The funny thing is, when the test comes back again, what really gets put to the test is the mindset that was created previously. If I failed the test the first time and came to the wrong conclusions as to why (i.e. like becoming bitter at God) or if I passed the test the first time but took credit for passing instead of realizing that it was His grace or empowerment that made it possible (although there is a process of yielding), I likely will fail again if changes are not made. I do not really find out what mindsets I have until they are put under pressure. What I know (in the biblical sense) has more to do with how I operate rather than what I have understood intellectually. The problem is, many take their opportunity to grow and use it to reinforce the wrong mindsets rather than see them as opportunities for promotion. Through the passing of the test, promotion - which comes from the Lord - opens.

*****************************

Here's a good quote:
"Poverty is more than not having something. It's a spirit that is always fearful of not having anything at all. The spirit of fear that affects the entire human race is so massive a force that even a person who has much still tends to think it will never be enough." -Jack Hayford p. 184 Glory on Your House (good book - I recommend it if you are wanting to learn to have the presence of the Lord rest on your life more)

Quotes

2010-06-08T17:19:00.000-07:00

All of these quotes are from Bill Johnson and I found them on the facebook page for Bill Johnson One Liners.

The will of God never takes you to where the grace of God will not protect you!

If the value of something is the price we are willing to pay for it, we need to seriously consider our own value.

It's difficult to expect the same fruit of the early church when we value a book they didn't have more than we value the Holy Spirit they did have.

God doesn't hide things from us, he hides things for us.

Transformed people transform communities.

Powerless Christianity is not an option.

A man who has an encounter is never at the mercy of a man with an argument.

Insecurity is wrong security exposed.

Discouragement is the mother of bad doctrine.

To draw near to God for ministry and not relationship is professional intimacy. What do we call those who are intimate as a profession?

When our understanding is unfruitful and events happen in life that we cannot explain and do not understand, if we are willing to give up the right to understand we can receive the peace that passes understanding.

If you understand everything going on in your Christian life, then you have an inferior Christian life.

Don't lower the standard of God's promises to your level of experience.

If you don't live by applause of men, then you'll not die by their criticism.

Revelation is intended to bring us into encounter ... if it doesn't ... is takes us deeper into religion.

The fullness of the Spirit of God is not measured in what you contain...it's illustrated in what you release.

It's not our job to ask for Revival, it's our job to carry Revival.

If You want to kill giants, follow a giant killer.

Bible study without Bible experience is pointless.

A lot of people are just one encounter short of good theology.

If Jesus preached most of the messages that were preached last Sunday, He never would have been crucified.

If what you're doing for the Lord does not require courage, you need to re-examine your assignment.

Did you know that every disappointment is only temporary and that every victory is eternal??

If you don't run into the devil now and then you might be going in the wrong direction.

You know your mind has been renewed when the impossible seems logical.

He made this an insecure lifestyle apart from His voice.

If you're not depressed by small numbers, you won't be impressed with the large numbers.

Are we going to live in reaction to what hasnt happened or will we live in response to what he's doing?

I try to live in such a way that nothing gets bigger than my awareness of God's presence.

But Jesus didn't say to pray for the sick..He said to heal them.

Quote

2010-05-16T16:00:00.000-07:00

"Leaders are readers... I just know that I have seen that those who have an appetite to read; they are the ones that God raises up and uses in a mighty way. I took this course at Fuller Seminary by a Professor named Bobby Clinton and he studied all of the leaders who finished well and those who didn't. And it is amazing how many leaders, even in the Bible, that did not finish well. Like David did not finish well even though he was a man after God's heart, even Moses could not even enter into the promised land, Peter denied Jesus 3 times and all that, and you have Judas who didn't finish at all, but then he started to study people in church history and the common denomenator that those who finished well all had is that they were constantly learning even in their old age. When they were 70, 80, they were studying, reading, learning. They were still being a disciple. They were teachable, they were humble. So I want to encourage you as a young person to develop that discipline now to study the Word of God and to study your area... ." -Che Ahn

"[first sentence spoken by one of Che's mentors to him when he was young] You take care of the depth of your ministry and God will take care of the breadth. And what he was saying to me was to take care of the foundation of your ministry... Humility is a choice though. You have to choose to give Him glory. You have to choose to stay humble... You have to hold that [success] lightly knowing that you are a servant and ultimately we are all servants." -Che Ahn

Testimonies, impartation, and offense

2010-05-04T22:09:00.000-07:00

A testimony is an invitation to an impartation.

There are many different responses when people share testimonies. Two of the most common are seen through the thieves on the cross. They had heard testimony that Jesus was able to help them and needed rescuing. One has essentially a "prove it" attitude. Essentially he was saying that if you are the Christ, why don't you prove it by rescuing us all. Now there was also a challenge to His divinity that was blasphemous (according to the Greek) - "if thou art the Christ." But his attitude and response to the testimony was one of requiring him to prove it. The other thief, however, humbled himself and, as a result, received the breakthrough from Jesus. The funny thing is, the man whose response was "prove it," died and probably still felt convinced that he was right in trying to make Jesus prove it and that Jesus really could not do what He could because He didn't for him.

Personally, I know I had a "prove it" attitude for many years in regards to other's testimonies. I think it wasn't until my hunger for breakthrough started to exceed my pride in regards to what I thought I knew that impartation started to flow to me. It came from those who had testimonies that I desperately wanted to see God do to touch those that He would later give me contact with. This is often why those with child-like hunger and faith can often get breakthroughs that those who know far, far more (who are impressed with how much they know) can't get. This spiritual pride is the breeding ground for unbelief because if the breakthrough were to happen it would obviously go to the people with the most knowledge (or that think they have the most knowledge :) ). Believe me, I lived in that rut for way, way too long. There IS an invitation to an impartation with every testimony.

Along the same lines, I am convinced the spirit of offense is one of the biggest things that holds back impartation. A couple of weeks ago I was hearing a testimony from a guy that was very outside of my box of what encountering God looks like. However, this man does have a lot of wisdom. I found myself starting to shut down internally from being able to receive from him because of how "wrong" he is (on that one thing - according to me - who, last I checked, is not always right! :) ). I realized that through allowing myself to shut down because of what I supposedly know, I was robbing myself from what I could have gleaned through this guy's message. I think offense and pride (which go together) are some of the best ways to be robbed from what God could have given. Which is greater: my hunger to receive - especially in order to be able to help another with what I could get, or my certainty of how right I am which will cause me to shut down from receiving from others? This is a choice that I am constantly presented with. I should be able to learn from anyone, not just only a select few that I can agree with on the things that I deem to be valuable.

identity, pride, etc. - I think this is one of the greatest keys to the supernatural

2010-04-12T19:46:00.001-07:00

It is important to come to the right conclusions about what occurs when God does something through someone. It is dangerous to create our own spiritual identities out of having a strong prophetic annointing, healing annointing, having lots of spiritual insight, and so on. If someone comes to the conclusion "I am a prophesying machine" or whatever because they get five very accurate words in a row, they created an identity out of what God did through them. Spiritual pride often becomes the next logical step. Shortly thereafter, it is very easy for either a) the joy to leave in regards to prophesying or b) the gift to not work so smoothly. Why?

First a): God moves through a person through the Holy Spirit. Love and joy are fruit of the Holy Spirit and faith flows through love. When gifts become about me and what gift I have and what I can do, I have missed the whole point. The gift flows the best through love. When the love leaves in regards to using the gift, the joy often goes with it - because they are both fruit of the Holy Spirit. The fruit are the Holy Spirit's fruit. Not mine. I am commanded to be continually filled with the Holy Spirit so that His fruit flows out of me. I think this can best be illustrated through self-control. Cloud & Townsend like to talk in How People Grow how self-control is a fruit of the Holy Spirit - not mine. The person who is trying really hard to control themselves will typically be out-of-control. A person with a profound anger issue that tries to control their temper often doesn't really succeed for the long term. That is because self-control comes from being filled with the Holy Spirit. Either all of the fruit of the Holy Spirit are in operation or none of them are. Because they are the Holy Spirit's fruit, not mine. So, back to joy and love. When love for people leaves and pride over the gift checks in it is a really good way to lose all joy related to the gift. Because the joy and love checked out together - when the filling of the Holy Spirit did. 1 John 2: 14-17 talks of how pride (along with lust and sinful cravings) are what keeps someone from having the love of the Father in them. They are the fool's gold that keeps from the mother lode. So the pride about how God worked through them killed the love of the Father which caused the joy to check out with it. Make sense?

Sometimes, though, the gift just ceases to work. This would make logical sense because God is wanting the person to understand that He is the one doing it, not them. Yes, they partner with Him, but He is the one that provided the prophetic word. In order to have a gift or grace (empowerment - charismata is the Greek for gifts of grace) on a person's life, it helps if they realize that it is a gift. It is not theirs. It came from someone else. Yes, God did give it, but it is from Him. So at times, when the gift does not seem to function, it could be that we created an identity out of what He did through us. God would rather have me not be destroyed by my pride and so the other person misses out on how God wanted to bless through me.

Some of this just needs to come back to the place of community. God was not really ever after creating an individualistic society. He's not really trying to get me obsessed with my dream, my destiny, my calling, and my gifting. The Greek New Testament differentiates between second person singular verbs and second person plural verbs (you vs. ya'll). English does not because we read "you" either way. As we read the New Testament in the context of our individualistic society, we can often read the "you" that Paul and other authors use and think it is about me alone - that it is written as a singular you. But most all of the time "you" is written, it is really a "ya'll." Your gift is not about you individually, is best understood in the context of community. Maybe I should repeat that - gifts are about the church being edified, not about a person feeling like they are a prophesying machine.

The real danger comes when creating a spiritual identity out of what God does through me is that pride is just around the corner. What also comes is a lot of pressure. If I take credit for what God does through me, then I have to keep it up. Enter striving. Because then one has to keep up in the flesh what was done by God in the Spirit. All I can say is "good luck to that" to anyone trying.

So much of Bethel Church's (of Redding, CA) focus is to have people see themselves as people that God wants to change the world through. This is absolutely crucial. But it isn't about me trying to work hard to attain a gift - because I can't do it. You can't work hard to produce something that you can't do. However, I have to come to the place where unworthiness, insecurity, inferiority, low self-worth or whatever gets broken off of my life so that I can believe that God wants to work through me to touch the people around me. Typically, these religious ideas hold the supernatural back more than the pride does. But both are out-of-balance. Therefore, it isn't about me becoming a prophesying or healing or whatever machine as much as it is about me not limiting God from touching whoever is in front of me because He loves them and wants to do so through me. The conclusions I come to after God works through me are important. It really isn't about me. Yes, it is so much as I don't turn around and run away from the opportunity to minister or actually believe that God could do something through me. But my focus when ministering really is on the other person because I know that God wants to touch them. I am only a conduit for Him to flow through. So after it is done I get to thank God for how He touched the other person and thank Him for the opportunity to partner with Him. This thanksgiving a) keeps me from pride b) keeps my focus on others instead of self-absorbed c) acknowledges who did the work, etc.

There is this paradox of the Christian life. We are absolutely powerful yet absolutely powerless. The sad thing is that religion makes people powerless when they are actually powerful. So they pray and ask God to help them for things that He gave them authority over. For example, Neil T. Anderson shares (in The Bondage Breaker) about a girl who is being tormented by demons how she prays and asks God to free her but nothing ever changes - Because God gave her authority to command them to leave. God made her powerful. However, she can take authority all day long if God does not actually take care of the situation, there still is nothing she can do. So she is absolutely powerful but absolutely powerless. The same is true with healing. I can take authority over sickness and disease because God gave me (like all Christians) authority. However, I still am absolutely powerless to actually heal a person. This is why healing is not something we attain! I didn't do anything! If God does not change the situation to respond to the authority He wants me to exercise, I am helpless to bring any real change. Many of the greatest breakthroughs that God has let me see in healing have come after coming back to the place of helplessness in knowing that I can't do anything to bring about the breakthrough I am desperate to see God pour out to touch His body, but yet with the understanding that there is no reason why God can not do it through me (oh, I can fast and pray and spend large amounts of time with Him, but if I think this is going to be what changes things, I have become a Pharissee - however, sacrifice DOES draw the fire of God). Often, He lets my love level get to the point that I really could care less if I am involved in bringing about the change - I just desperately want it to occur. And then He moves through me, because my dream was never supposed to be about me - it was supposed to be about love for those in the situation and to actually see it come to pass for their benefit. This is the place where our dream actually brings about contentment. Because if the dream is not rooted in love, it is empty when it actually comes.

This is the source of identity - it is in knowing that I am His child (John 1:12). When I understand whose I belong to, I have discovered the only secure place for my identity. Any other place is subject to change. And to walk in the realization of being his child and not attempting to derive identity or self-worth from another place only comes through ongoing relationship with Him.

Now (just to contradict myself) gifts do come by grace and God obviously still does do things through His body all of the time even when we are not walking in love or have yielded to Him where He purifies our hearts. However, this was more of a debugging post to help those who are wondering why things may not be working so well. The last thing I want is someone to think that God cannot move through them because they do not think that everything in their life is just perfect. And some people can always come up with reasons for why they are disqualified. This too needs to go!

Quotes

2010-04-10T18:22:00.000-07:00

"The majority of leaders will emerge via common entry patterns. It is self-initiation in the entry patterns that indicates strong potential for upper-level leadership. Plateauing in a leader's development is indicated by a declining frequency of initiative and response to ministry challenges and ministry requirements." -Robert Clinton in The Making of a Leader p. 87

"The basic giftedness development pattern 1) Ministry experience, 2) discovery of gift, 3) increased use of that gift, 4) effectiveness in using that gift, 5) discovery of other gifts, 6) identification of gift-mix, 7) development of gift-cluster, and 8) convergence." Clinton, p. 91

"Maybe it isn't so much about one learning how to accrue or grow in gifts/graces on their life as much as it is learning to not doubt that the goodness of God wouldn't want to flow through me to show God's love to another in a way I don't normally experience or see him do regularly. If we believe in the goodness of God, it isn't fair to limit allowing His goodness expressed through you!" - Me. I put this as a facebook status but decided I wanted to keep it longer so I'm tossing it in here.

If you are interested in a great book on leadership, check out The Making of a Leader by Robert Clinton

Haiti Part 2

2010-03-08T18:05:00.000-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30rWm84z-zg

This explains the 3 days of prayer and fasting nationwide in Haiti instead of their normal Mardi Gras.

Haiti

2010-02-27T14:41:00.000-08:00

I found this here http://www.sermonindex.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=32770&forum=40

I assume it is a reputable source.

AMAZING MIRACLE in HAITI By Jerry Miel

NOTE: For centuries, Haiti has been one of the darkest nations
in the world - full of voodoo and witchcraft - even at the highest
levels of government. But now - look at this!!

ARTICLE and YOUTUBE VIDEO BELOW-

AMAZING MIRACLE in HAITI

Jerry Miel is a good friend and radio engineer who served as a
missionary in Haiti with World Team mission when we lived there.
He worked with the Christian station, Radio Lumiere (Radio Light).
He has gone back to Haiti to help in the aftermath of the earthquake
and makes these important observations. -- Boxley

AN INCREDIBLE DAY in the HISTORY OF HAITI
-by Jerry Miel (Feb 17).

I think that I will remember this day as one of the most significant
in my life, not because of what I did, but for it's meaning...

Today was the one month anniversary of the great Haitian earthquake.

About 3 days ago the Haitian President announced that there
would be 3 days of holiday from work for the purpose of fasting
and prayer. This is absolutely historic. If you have ever been in
Haiti as a visitor or missionary, could you ever have imagined
such a pronouncement? Could you image such an announcement
from the U.S. President? This morning I saw a young Haitian-
American woman, the leader of a work team, crying because the
Americans could not understand the incredible importance of this
day and wanted to go about business as usual. Remember, it was
only about 6 years ago that a former Haitian president called the
nation to come together to rededicate the nation to Satan.

This was not "a minute of silence for the deceased" or something
as equally insignificant. Whatever the President might have
originally intended, this became a real commitment for the Haitian
people. As I sit here this evening, I can hear the preaching coming
from a nearby church. Services have been going on all day...

Let me tell you what I saw and felt today.

Peniel and I had planned an inspection trip up to the Artibonite
Valley today. Right or wrong, I don't really know, but since it was
the only opportunity, we went ahead with the trip. As we left the
guest house about 7:30 am, we were met by throngs of well
dressed people headed to various churches. The sounds of
Christian music and worship filled the air everywhere. The next
observation was that there was NO traffic. Port-au-Prince streets
are always clogged and overflowing with bumper to bumper traffic.
This morning there were only a few vehicles on the roads, a few
small buses (tap taps), some UN and military vehicles, and a few
private cars. We had clear sailing through town. The same was
true of foot traffic. Usually the streets are clogged also with
people walking. Today there were only a few and many of them
dressed for church. The only place that there were traffic blocks
was in front of several churches where the congregations had
overflowed the buildings and the yards and had moved out into
the streets as well.

The next observation was that EVERYTHING was closed! We
could not find even one business or gas station open. There were
no intercity buses running. Whereas the sidewalks are usually
overflowing with millions of street venders, we only saw a few here
and there. The huge outdoor market near the wharf where
thousands work each day and is spread out to cover most of the
street, was EMPTY.

Where were all the people? They were in churches and makeshift
meeting sites. Every church (except a JW church) had services
going on, almost always overflowing into the streets. Beside
broken down churches, services were taking place outside. In
homeless camps, there were services. Everywhere the nation was
gathered to worship and pray. No, I did not see any voodoo,
Islamic, or Buddhist services. This scene was repeated in every
town and hamlet that we passed during the day.

Tonight, Pastor Ignace, who is sharing the room with me, asked
this question: "Can people still say that Haiti is a voodoo country?"
What has been happening and is continuing to happen in Haiti did
not happen because of the earthquake. It has been happening
because the Haitian people know how to pray. This is a tremendous
outpouring of God's power as the result of prayer. Twenty years
ago I started praying for the Gospel to change the Haitian culture.
I think that I am seeing God do that work.

The only sadness that I feel today is for our nation. While a nation
that has long been under Satan's domination is turning to God
with total commitment, our nation, founded on Godly values has
rejected God and is rapidly trying to forget that his name even
exists. Let us pray for revival.

Andrew Murray

2010-02-18T23:24:00.000-08:00

I just read through Andrew Murray's book The Spirit of Christ. You can read it online from Google books for free if you want.

I tossed a few of my favorite quotes of his below. Enjoy!

The Spirit always acts, in the first place; whether in nature or grace, as a Life-giving principle. It is of the deepest importance to keep firm hold on this. His work in the believer, of Sealing, Sanctifying, Enlightening, and Strengthening, is all rooted in this: it is as He is known and honoured, and place given to Him, as He is waited on, as the Inner Life of the soul, that His other gracious workings can be experienced. These are but the outgrowth of the Life; it is in the power of the Life within that they can be enjoyed. ' (43)

How much of Scripture reading, and Scripture study, and Scripture preaching is there in which the first and main object is to reach the meaning of the Word ? Men think that if they know correctly and exactly what it means, there will come as a natural consequence the blessing the Word is meant to bring. This is by no means the case. The Word is a seed. In every seed there is a fleshy part, in which the life is hidden. One may have the most precious and perfect seed in its bodily, substance, and yet unless it be exposed in suitable soil to the influence of sun and moisture, the life may never grow up. And so we may hold the words and the doctrines of Scripture most intelligently and earnestly, and yet know little of their life or power. (Page 47)

What is needed is very simple: the determined refusal to attempt to deal with the written word without the quickening Spirit. Let us never take Scripture into our hand, or mind, or mouth, without realizing the need and the promise of the Spirit. First, in a quiet act of worship, look to God to give and renew the workings of His Spirit within you; then, in a quiet act of faith, yield yourself to the power that dwells in you, and wait on Him, that not the mind alone, but the life in you, may be opened to receive the Word. Let the Holy Spirit be your life. To the Spirit and the Life coming out from within to meet the Word from without as its food, the words of Christ are indeed Spirit and Life. (48).

I see it more and more : The power of the word and its truth depend upon living fellowship with Jesus. (50)

OUR Lord promises here [in reference to John 7:37-38], that those who come unto Him and drink, who believe in Him, will not only never thirst, but will themselves become fountains, whence streams of living water, of life and blessing, will flow forth. (51)

In writing to the Corinthians, Paul had to reprove them for sad and terrible sins, and yet he says to all, including the feeblest and most unfaithful believer, 'Know ye not that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?' Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost ?' He is sure that if this were believed, if to this truth were given the place God meant it to have, it would not only be the motive, but the power of a new and holy life. (65-66)

The Magic Bullet

2010-02-16T22:16:00.000-08:00

I think there is a magic bullet - it is called ongoingly, experientially knowing the heart of God.

When you know the heart of God, you can't help but walk in His heart for other people.

When you know the heart of God for yourself, a fresh revelation of His love comes. This dispells the fear and worries and jealousy.

When you know the heart of God, love overflows to others. Not only that, it is a much better conduit for God's power to flow through us and faith flows through love. It is they who know their God that do exploits according to Daniel.

When you know the heart of God, it helps keep us from giving up on people because we see them from His perspective.

When you know the heart of God, it will push you further forward into your destiny of advancing His kingdom because those that are compelled by His love for others will accomplish more than they ever could have just by wanting to desire their dreams to come to fruition. It will also dispel the fear related to these dreams!

When you know the heart of God, yeilding to Him becomes much more of a joy than a burden.

When you know the heart of God, trusting Him becomes much, much easier.

When you know the heart of God, He quickens the principles, truth, and revelation to overcome, strategies for advancing the kingdom, etc.

When you know the heart of God, He restores innocence, purity, etc.

When you know the heart of God, He acts as a mirror showing us areas that are not in line with Him that were so intertwined with us that we would have never realized it (Tozer calls these the "self-" sins in The Pursuit of God). But through knowing His heart, He gently changes us to conform to Him and His perspective.

When you know the heart of God, you live heaven to earth from His perspective, rather than earth to heaven from the perspective of religion (this might not make sense to everyone).

Thank you Jesus for a fresh encounter with Your heart today at school.

The foundation of belief that dictates how we live...

2010-01-23T21:03:00.000-08:00

We as people operate out of our core beliefs in our walk with the Lord. Unfortunately, for many years of my life, my walk with the Lord would always be undermined by severe unbelief to the point that I spent a lot of time even questioning whether there even was a God. I think many Christians find themselves there. My problem was that I would never really grow in my walk with Him because whatever revelation or truth He gave me I would not be able to learn to operate out of because I was so busy living in questioning of His existence. I was certainly able to get a better grasp of Bible knowledge. But if one thinks that Bible knowledge makes for spiritual maturity, the Pharisees should become the heroes of the Bible.

The Bible emphasizes stewardship, if you retain what you are given, even more will be added, but for him who does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. For many years I think I was unable to steward the revelation that I would here presented because doubt on foundational issues would undermine it.

But there is something magical in clinging to the Word. John 8:31-32 talks of HOLDING to the truth and then experientially knowing it to be set free. It is through the clinging that the truth/revelation starts to become us. It dictates how we act. And a bit of a foundation starts to begin to be created. I was blessed to have much opportunity to learn clinging to Jesus and His Word through cancer (although I obviously don't recommend cancer to anyone). I also was blessed to have numerous hours each day to cling to revelation given through preaching I watched on sky angel. What starts to happen is that the Word mixes with experience to become us. Then when more revelation is heard it adds on to the grid of truth that already exists. While we are all liable to have cracks in our foundation of truth, a part of the growing process is adding to the spectrum of beliefs while rearranging core cracks. Ultimately, we all act out of what we believe - as I have heard said numerous times from a variety of people - what you believe is true for you even if it isn't true. For example, a quality girl may think that she is worthless and doesn't deserve anything better than a loser guy so she settles and puts up with that or sabotages a good relationship she might have. What she believes to be true works out to be in her experience even if it is completely wrong.

I think the clinging to the truth and core principles is what creates a foundation for God's presence to rest on for our lives. Bill Johnson likes to say that "we can have the measure of the presence of the Lord on our lives as we are willing to jealously guard." I think a lot of that comes back to if we are willing to fight (so to speak) against ourselves, emotions, society, etc. to keep from allowing the foundation of truth we believe in to be eroded. Undisciplined thinking and beliefs create foundations that are not as conducive to the presence of the Lord and living filled with the Spirit. If our actions and words come from underlying heart issues and beliefs, then when I was very undisciplined in the revelation I was given, I was not creating a foundation for the presence of the Lord to rest on my life. As a result, He feels distant because of what I believe and the subsequent way I live my life. When there is no living filled with the Holy Spirit, there is no empowerment to walk out the Christian life and at best we live lives of legalism trying to legislate things that can only be changed at the heart level through an encounter with Christ. Religion then tries to make spiritual maturity and growth about how much one knows or what title they have rather than what beliefs and from whose empowerment they live out of.

As we grow in our walk with the Lord we can start to see trends of what beliefs destroy freedom in our lives. A common one that I think we are all prone to walk into is to make something other than God our source. I think this is why doubt is such a common way the enemy tries to get Christians distracted. If God is no longer our source then we have to control and manipulate to get our agenda to pass. But if God is our source and we no longer live to do our will but His (to the best of our understanding) then certain ugly fruit in our lives just disappear because we no longer live to get stuff out of people and things but rather to be a blessing and add value to them (which is the starting point of loving others in my opinion).

I think part of the key is to have a variety of anointed people who influence our lives who not only are bright theologically but teach from a place of victory in the issue such that we can receive an empowerment from the word spoken to change us. As a result, there is an impartation given as we attach what they have said on to our own grid of truth which grows us more and more.

I think one way that the word of wisdom works is that as a problem or discussion is occurring, the Holy Spirit will quicken either experiences and the principles behind them from our own lives or truths to share. Most of the time that happens the person giving the word of wisdom walks away thinking that what was presented came out far better than they could have done - they know it was from the Holy Spirit. I think this is part of the reason why living positioned (or filled) through His grace is so important to the Christian life. The 1 Cor. 12 gifts are manifestation gifts (i.e. when His presence is manifest) so they seem to come into operation much more frequently when we are living positioned, filled, or the corporate annointing is such to minister from that.

Worth Watching

2010-01-15T00:10:00.001-08:00

My buddy Jonathan found this...
http://www.youtube.com/user/AssociatedPress#p/u/3/z9qx6PG7JMA

The Holy Spirit

2009-12-14T04:27:00.000-08:00

I was looking back through some old papers I wrote in undergrad and found this one... likely my favorite paper I ever got to write for school. I know in dialogue with people over the years that I have had more than a few requests to put this online. Hopefully, they will find this on here or my facebook notes (where it will get imported). I go through and list what the results of the Holy Spirit coming on someone (or them being filled with the Holy Ghost) were in the Bible. VERY interesting to study... This paper was written a few years ago, my second semester at college after having been cancer-free. This is not the whole paper, but simply one point so there is no intro, conclusion, etc. here. God bless!

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Biblical Evidence for Being Led/ Filled by the Spirit
In the Bible, after the Holy Spirit’s filling, manifestations include prophecy, empowerment to complete tasks, victory in intense conflict, geographical change, and life, at times, including even abundance or healing. The consequences of the Spirit’s indwelling also include speaking in tongues, boldness in speech, and, in two rare circumstances, glimpses into the supernatural before leaving earth. First, unlike the New Testament where identifying the Holy Spirit is obvious, one needs to find how to find Him in the Old Testament. This can be difficult since the Old Testament rarely uses the words “Holy Spirit.” However, “the Spirit of God” is frequently used and it comes from the two nouns Spirit and God. While some might argue that this is simply referring to God’s activity, mind, or will; after comparing Joel’s prophecy with Pentecost it is clear that this is not true (Erickson 276). Acts 2:18 quotes Joel as saying that God will “pour out my Spirit,” and then that this is done by the “Holy Spirit” (NIV Acts 1:8). Clearly, the Spirit of God of the Old Testament is synonymous with the Holy Spirit (Erickson 276). One thing that should be noted in studying the Old Testament is that the indwelling by the Spirit of God can happen either intermittently or permanently (Erickson 277).
Prophecy is a clear result of being filled with the Spirit. In the second chapter of Ezekiel, Ezekiel testifies that his gift of prophecy came about as the result of the Holy Spirit’s indwelling (Erickson 277). This is described as follows: “As he spoke the Spirit came into me and raised me to my feet, and I heard him speaking to me” (NIV Ezekiel 2:2). The Holy Spirit also came upon Isaiah causing him to prophesy (NIV Isaiah 59:21). In Second Chronicles, the filling by the Spirit of God occurs immediately prior to prophecy. This happens to Azariah, Jahaziel, and Zechariah in chapters fifteen, twenty, and twenty-four, respectively. In the book of Acts, Agabus prophesies as a result of the power of the Holy Spirit (Acts 11:28). King Saul is another man who prophesies as a result of the power of the Spirit. It says in 1 Samuel 10:10 that “When they arrived at Gibeah, a procession of prophets met him; the Spirit of God came upon him in power and he joined in their prophesying” (NIV). In 1 Samuel 19, Saul tries to send men to capture David. When this group meets Samuel and a group of prophets, however, the Holy Spirit falls upon them and they prophesy. So Saul sends another group of men and again, they prophesy through the Spirit’s indwelling. So Saul again repeats this and gets the same result. Finally, Saul travels to David, but, before he can get to him, the Holy Spirit falls upon him. This prompts him to strip off his robes and then prophesy and lay down all day and night; unable to get up as a result of the power of the Spirit (1 Samuel 19:20-24).
Another manifestation of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit occurs through giving empowerment to tasks that need to be done (Erickson 277). In Exodus 31:3, the filling of the Holy Spirit results in Bezalel having “skill, ability, and knowledge in all kinds of crafts” to build the tabernacle (NIV). The Spirit of God is so powerful in Joseph’s administrative abilities that Pharaoh recognized it and said, “Can we find anyone like this man, one in whom is the Spirit of God” (NIV)? Gideon, by the power of the Spirit becomes gifted in leadership, “Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon, and he blew a trumpet, summoning the Abiezrites to follow him” (NIV Judges 6:34-35).
The filling of the Holy Spirit also can precede victory in intense conflict. In the book of Judges, the Holy Spirit gives ability to some of the leaders to fight in war; this includes Othniel, Samson, and Jephthah. Like the Old Testament judges, the empowerment by the Holy Spirit prompts Jesus into conflict and victory with his temptation by the devil (Luke 4:1-2).
The Holy Spirit also can cause geographical change. He seems to transport Elijah (Barker 511). In fact, the logical conclusion by the prophets after Elijah is brought to heaven is to look in different valleys or mountains to see if the Spirit of the Lord picks up and moves him there (NIV 2 Kings 2:16). Ezekiel also experiences being moved by the Holy Spirit: “The Spirit then lifted me up and took me away…” (NIV Ezekiel 3:14, 11:1). After the Holy Spirit came on Jesus during baptism (Matt. 3:16, Mark 1:10, Luke 3:22, John 1:32), it drove him into the desert (Luke 4:1, Mark 1:12). Philip is snatched away by the Spirit of the Lord after meeting with the Ethiopian eunuch (NIV Acts 8:39). Paul and Barnabus are sent to Cyprus as a result of the Holy Spirit (Acts 13:4) but are prohibited from entering the province of Asia (Acts 16:6).
The Holy Spirit’s infilling also causes life and, at times, even abundance or healing. Isaiah 32:14-15 says, “The fortress will be abandoned, the noisy city deserted; citadel and watchtower will become a wasteland forever, the delight of donkeys, a pasture for flocks, tell the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, and the desert becomes a fertile field, and the fertile field seems like a forest” (NIV Isaiah 32:14-15). When Ezekiel sees the valley of the dry bones the Lord tells him that, “I will put my Spirit in you and you will live...” (Ezekiel 37:14). Because of the Holy Spirit’s infilling, Jesus’ ministry statement captures the essence of the abundant life, “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:18-19). Similarly, Acts historically records that Jesus’ anointing by the Holy Ghost caused Him to heal and do good.
In the book of Acts, the Holy Spirit’s infilling causes Christians to speak in tongues frequently. This happens first at Pentecost (Acts 2:4), then to the Gentiles (Acts 10:44-46), and later to a group of twelve men who also prophesy (Acts 19:6-7).
The Holy Spirit’s infilling causes great boldness in Peter in Acts 4:8. As a result, he gives glory to God despite persecution. In Acts 4:31, the filling of the Holy Ghost causes boldness. Paul preaches with great boldness shortly after conversion due to the filling of the Holy Spirit (Acts 9:17-22). The filling of the Holy Spirit in Paul causes him to boldly confront Elymas and, as a result, he becomes blind (Acts 13:9-12).
The anointing of the Holy Spirit also, in two rare circumstances, brought glimpses into the supernatural before leaving earth. Stephen, when filled with the Holy Spirit, glimpses God, in Acts 7:55, immediately prior to being stoned. Since Elisha asks Elijah for a double portion of his spirit before death it appears he also is filled with the Holy Spirit immediately prior to departing to heaven (2 Kings 2:9-12).

More Quotes

2009-12-12T01:43:00.000-08:00

"The Scripture says that 'the violent take it by force' and there are some things that can only be taken possession of by courageous warriors. And then there is a higher level of access to the kingdom. And in Mark 10 he says, 'Unless you receive the kingdom as a child you can't enter it at all.' And some things are reserved for soldiers, but some things are so precious, that they are reserved for sons. The Lord wants to know authority - the authority of taking it by force, but He wants us to know inheritance what it is to receive because of what someone else has done..."

-Bill Johnson spoken to the group experiencing renewal at IHOP in Kansas City

"The miracle realm is man’s natural realm. He is by creation the companion of the miracle-working God. Sin dethroned man from the miracle-working realm, but through grace, he is coming into his own. It has been hard for us to grasp the principles of this life of faith. In the beginning, man’s spirit was the dominant force in the world. When he sinned, his mind became dominant. Sin dethroned the spirit and crowned the intellect. But grace is restoring the spirit to its place of dominion. When man comes to realize this, he will live in the realm of the supernatural without effort. No longer will faith be a struggle, but a normal living in the realm of God. The spiritual realm places man where communion with God is a normal experience. Miracles are then his native breath." - John G. Lake

Quotes

2009-12-09T23:02:00.000-08:00

"We routinely disqualify testimony that would plead for extenuation. That is, we are so persuaded of the rightness of our judgment as to invalidate evidence that does not confirm us in it. Nothing that deserves to be called truth could ever be arrived at by such means." - Marilynne Robinson

"Spiritual passion is not merely an emotion, it is a force born of innter convictions that are rooted in divine revelation and applied with a sense of personal mission." -Jack Hayford

"Are you unoffendable? If you aren't, that's probably a good indicator of where God wants to grow you next." -Kendall (a classmate)

"Christianity is perfectly easy or impossible. It depends who is running the ship." -John Crowder

"Are you missing faith? Check your love-meter. Faith flows through love." -Ben Dunn

"Failure is not fatal. It is often the best way to create learning... most of what we have learned has come on the other side of failure." -Danny Silk

"To a person endowed with prophetic sight, everyone else appears blind; to a person whose ear percieves God's voice, everyone else appears deaf... The prophet's word is a scream in the night. While the world is at ease and asleep, the prophet feels the blast from heaven." -Abraham Joshua Heschel

"Never put limits on who can teach you, because some of the best things I have learned have come from the least qualified." -Amy Jackson

"We like to have events. But we are short on processes." - Jack Taylor

Performance, striving, pride, living in the Light

2009-11-26T23:33:00.000-08:00

There is a major link between religious striving and pride. If one thinks that it is more than simply the grace of God and the moving of His Spirit that allowed some move that He did in our lives to occur, than we will walk in pride. It will also open up the door to religious striving because now we have to keep up through our effort what started by Him and His Spirit (Gal. 3:3). Clearly, any move of God is only an act of grace and tends to happen more when we are out of the way than when it is about us - because God is not after sharing the glory with man. While it is clearly important to consecrate ourselves before seeing God move or even in interactions with Him, if one thinks their preperation and devotion will alone cause the breakthrough rather than a loving God moving in response, they will be disappointed.

So clearly there is a link between pride and striving... if I take credit for some measure of the good in my life, than I have to keep it up. All I can say is "good luck with that" to whoever is living that way. I am convinced this is one of the primary reasons why Christians "lose the grace" or lose the empowerment that allowed them to function in an area - they took credit for the work God did instead of stewarded it through thanksgiving and praise. I think there is also a link between performance and striving. Performance based Christianity has to keep up a good front or reputation and as a result has to keep up an image. As a result, striving generally checks in to keep the image up, all the while the grace (empowerment) on the person's life can start to dwindle. Identity's can start to come from what one can do by performance instead of through relationship with Him as His child. But God never was after His children creating identities about what He can do through them - He was after them being known as His children - then what He does through them will flow out of them through relationship without them trying to strive to make it occur.

I really liked how the School of the Supernatural has been emphasizing the importance of performance dying through living in the light. Openness and attempting to create a false image of oneself has to die when there is a genuine honesty about short comings and all of life. But it is this allowing of others to speak into our lives that is one of the essential ingredients that allows us to be able to genuinely love - I'm convinced. Because when we face our own issues, the pride of comparison to others starts to die as we see our own need for mercy. Now people are not there to keep a performance with as a never-ending form of bondage where life has no real peace because the person is working for love. No, now people are there to love and treat with value because they are not there to simply validate us.

Does this makes sense? Feel free to ask questions.

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While having our eyes set on the dreams that the Lord has put inside of us, it is absolutely crucial to hold on to them tight in respect to the world and not allowing them to be robbed from us. However, it is also just as crucial to hold on to them loosely before God. It is crucial to let God carve them into what He wants them to be which may be radically different than what we want them to be. Or to let Him grow us into them - even through ways that do not appear like He is. For example, Kris Vallotton tells how his road to ministry was through being in charge of car service stations. In the eyes of the world, this does not look like prepairing for world-wide ministry. Many others in ministry would testify that the road they took would not be the most logical, but it was the road that the Lord opened for them... and generally later they see His hand in it (if not sooner). This process of allowing the Lord to build our futures and trusting Him to is really the basis of surrender, I think. Surrender isn't about trying to think of the most awful thing to do and then deciding that "I guess I could do it if God wanted me to" - I think that's one of the most faulty core ideas of religion. God isn't really after us torturing ourselves in the name of love for Him. He IS after our being willing to give up our futures and put them into His hands knowing that He is for us and wants to grow us in the way He sees best. When we put it in His hands knowing that He is taking care of us all the while going after with tenacity the advancement of His kingdom, then I think we have a better concept of surrender. If He wants to shift our focus, than He is free to.
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I think people feel under attack by the enemy or like they have lost their peace of mind when they are one step behind in the Spirit. Let me explain. I used to think more along the lines of - we have an enemy, He is against us, so we should realize that attack will come but that we can live in overcoming. However, I think my focus has shifted a bit. Sure, that can still be an issue, but often I think it is just that He wants us to grow. How did the attack come in? What area of our life do we need to grow in or change. Where do we need His empowerment in a different area of life so as to maintain walking in His peace and freedom? As we keep step with the Spirit, we live more and more in His peace and freedom.

Knowing Him...

2009-11-05T01:16:00.000-08:00

He's a person. And when you fall in love with the person, you get His presence. And when you fall in love with His presence, you get everything. Or rather, you get freed from the need to have everything.

When we no longer need _______ (for our reasons, not His) is when we are a good candidate to be able to receive it.

It is often (note: not even close to always) through extended periods of time with Him that we receive His revelation and breakthroughs (meaning He speaks to us - not saying like the book of Mormon) - through waiting on Him and knowing Him. But we spend time with Him for extended periods for this, we might be disappointed and it turns into striving. That is why it is so important to read the first quote about falling in love with Him instead of striving for encounters and revelation.

There just is this sufficiency that comes from truly knowing Him.

Purpose and Dreams

2009-10-26T00:21:00.000-07:00

For those of you that are unfamiliar with Bethel Church culture, there is a large emphasis on one's dream that the Lord has put in their heart. As a second year student the dreams of how to change the 7 mountains of society (if you are unfamilar with this idea please read about it here... it will be worth your time http://www.reclaim7mountains.com/) to bring about revival is talked about VERY regularly. I think the Lord is moving around in me related to this...

This past summer, I was blessed. I got to start living my dream. Since when I had cancer, I always wanted the Lord to put a grace on my life for healing ministry. This last year was when I really started to see that grace come. Yet, as I know from all sorts of experiences, there is no dream that brings fulfillment, it only comes from the Lord and doing His will. Healing Services are His will, right? I mean that's the dream that He put in my heart, and it sure looks like He is empowering it right? Then why did by the end of the summer I started losing some of my contentment. I would see God move powerfully, lives are changed, and I am having a good time. But the complete contentment and joy that I started with had let up just a bit. Not a ton. Just a bit. I think because I was getting so busy pursuing God for healing and ministering so much I just needed time to get back to the One who gives purpose (which in my mind is closely linked to contentment). Also, there IS a difference (albeit, not huge) between the dreams I have and the dreams the Lord has for me.

The best way to tell this is to come back to School. Now, not ministering as much, I have a quiet season. On top of that I received prophetic words about a season of rest (which my body really needed after how busy my last year has been). And all of a sudden as I come back and don't allow myself to run around and pray for everything that moves (although I still did a little here and there), I realize that I start to feel I lack purpose. Because I had associated purpose with my dream. As I am doing my dream and going after it at a hundred miles an hour, I feel much more purpose. But if I am not doing the dream and am told I need to be in a season of rest (minus the two conferences and a few healing outbreaks here and there - I couldn't help myself - God just loves to heal people :) ), I realize I start to feel like I lack purpose. And now I see why it was so important that I rested for this season. I wouldn't have gotten this any other way.

First of all, I needed to change the way I encountered God. Rather than pursuing Him in order to see a lot of "stuff" happen, I need to pursue Him just for the sake of enjoying Him as a primary purpose. Bill Johnson mentioned that as He preached this morning and God has been showing me that repeatedly in the past month or so. As I am with the One who is the source of purpose, I again get refreshed to me what His purpose is for today. His purpose can not be limited to what my dream is, otherwise, if I am not doing my dream, I would lack purpose. God's purpose for me today might be to serve and do something not-so-glamorous like help stack chairs after school. Just to make a point - that probably is not my dream for the day - that is why it is not fair to always equivocate the dream God has put inside of me with His dream. If each day gets approached from the standpoint of falling in love with the Source of purpose, I will always have purpose regardless of whether I am currently engaging in my dream or not. It will also allow contentment, peace, and thanksgiving for the opportunities that God gives to do His purposes (which honestly looks more like taking my eyes off of me and what I am doing and looking around to see what needs to be done and/or where I feel God's compassion rise up in me). I really believe that the Christian life looks far more like connecting with the heart of God and letting His compassion flow through to impact those around me than it looks like ministering and/or working on my dream (or the dream that He has put in me) and feeling without purpose and like I am wasting time if I am not.

Obviously, this is a different dimension to dreaming than might normally get presented. I certainly agree with the importance of having big dreams and so forth (I might need to grow more in this). But it is important to not only dream big, but to be able to live that dream today - hope deferred isn't a good thing according to Proverbs. Utimately, one can do that if they are living God's dream for the day. I also think the dream needs to be simplified. If a dream is grandiose, than make it simple. I want to see people healed. I do have bigger dreams than that of how it may look, but the long and the short of it is that I do not want people to have to live in pain, with health conditions, etc. So I don't have to wait for Bill Johnson to give me a call to invite me to do conferences with him. I can pray for the person at the grocery store and see God heal them now. Because my dream is for God to heal people because I want them set free... not because I want to have a large crowd at my meetings. This purifies things because I realize I only want numbers because it means more people are touched, not based on some idea that more means that I will be happier or validates me or my ego in some way. I am really convinced that dreams have to be empowered by love for others for God to really delight in empowering them. While they are all about me, I'll probably just be frustrated at God and why He isn't empowering them. But if I care more that the dream gets accomplished than that I am the one doing it is when I really start to see breakthrough... because then it is motivated by love and not about me. This again goes back to getting God's purpose. I find if I fervently intercede for the people before a healing service or going out on the streets, there is much more breakthrough than fervent prayer for me. Because God empowers love. And it takes me out of the equation so He can flow through.

So, too summarize, at my current level of understanding - maybe a bunch of people will straighten me out - I think we can always feel content and with purpose through alligning with doing what God's purpose is and through, in some smaller way, doing that aspect of the dream. And God shows us ways to do that too... I might not have as many healing services as there was last summer (honestly, between Seminary and School of the Supernatural, I don't really have too much time), but I can go after seeing a bunch of first year students getting activated... always fun and what I enjoyed so much about the healing services!

Quotes

2009-10-22T14:51:00.000-07:00

Here's some random good quotes I have found.

"It seems most of the positives of [an event in history] are found in the motives, whereas the negatives are mostly in the manner in which they were carried out. Interestingly, I just learned that many times, we also judge ourselves on our motives whereas we judge others based on their actions." - a Seminary classmate

"Any area of my life that is not filled with glistening hope is where I am believing a lie and is a stronghold of the devil." -Francis Frangipane (sp?) Speaking on the quote "That means that spiritual warfare has much more to do with what I believe than with binding and rebuking."-Steve Backland

"Doubt is the assurance of failure. We choose it because we have absolute control over it". -Daniel McHarness (which would show the underlying problem behind the doubt...)

There is a mighty lot of difference between saying prayers and praying. - John G. Lake

"Great things come by grace, but great things will cost you everything." -Randy Clark

"The problem is not that we think the Christ-given mandate to heal people is impossible - it is that we think the rest of the Christian life is possible." -Bill Johnson

Intertwined

2009-09-02T10:33:00.000-07:00

Something that the Lord keeps showing me over and over is how it is important to not be so intertwined with the things going on in my life. For example, I find I can be very passionate about MY ministry, MY reputation, MY breakthroughs and so on and so forth. And I get off track because I become so intertwined with my own little world - even when the things that I want to see succeed are things that are good - that I can miss out. In those situations, I'm spending life with the Lord to see my own little world succeed instead of taking my eyes off of myself, seeing things from His perspective and ministering to others out of His heart. When the latter occurs, He generally takes care of the MY's because God wants to promote those that are doing His will. When the former occurs, I can get very frustrated, because I made His work in or through me all about me and wonder why He isn't blessing it. If it stays His work, He loves to bless it and it glorifies Him. If it is my work, there is probably a high likelihood that I can expect to remain frustrated because I have made His work all about me - and that can sometimes be the way He wants to grow me more than having external success. There seems to be this place of surrender of what is occurring into His hands rather than burning ourselves out trying to make things happen (or quitting and being depressed). Then we find ministry occurs out of a grace of peace and trust because we know that we are really powerless anyways to change anything. It is amazing what can happen when we know that all of the results don't have anything to do with us, but have everything to do with who our God is!

Just noticing...

2009-08-09T18:22:00.001-07:00

But I think virtually every major victory in my life has come after realizing that I am 100% powerless to bring it to pass, but unwilling to give up in believing God for it. I think while I think I still can do something and I have some flicker of hope in something other than God, He often lets me discover that that is false hope. But when I go to Him with absolute desperation with all of the chips on the table in because I have to Him see His victory come to pass in me or to impact others (focus being that then whether or not it comes through me) is when things begin to change. God is so much better than we think. I wonder if it is that He just a) wants to see if we really care about nothing more than His kingdom to advance and His righteousness or if it will just be a nice addition to our already busy lives and b) that we know that we are absolutely powerless to actually do that. It is impossible to be good at something that I can not do. But the Lord always sends fire to those that make themselves a sacrifice. There is a difference in desperation. There are many desperate people for breakthrough on this planet. If need moved the heart of God, revival would be a non-stop occurence in hospitals, prisons, etc. However, for whatever reason it seems to be that desperation for Him is what moves Him. Praise the Lord for His love in hearing the cries of those that are desperate!!

2009-08-03T18:32:00.000-07:00

You can't perform well at something that is impossible for you to do! (in regards to supernatural ministry) It is all grace and being willing to step out and take a risk!! - what I tell my students over and over...

Changing everything you thought you knew about forgiveness...

2009-06-23T00:35:00.001-07:00

I wrote this as my massive paper on forgiveness of reconcilable offenses. This is how King's Seminary, Jack Hayford, and the like (one of my other books quoted has the forward by D. James Kennedy) are treating forgiveness. I'm inclined to agree with what I wrote (not just wrote it because the prof would want it written like this), but still not sure I would preach this yet. Feel free to comment on this latest brand of heresy :)... Oh, and do pardon the grammatical errors. I finished this thing at 2:00 in the a.m. and only had a half hour to proof read it. Oh, and I think I meant to say that forgiveness is both a decision and a discovery. I think I emphasized the discovery part. With no decision, there will be no discovery of it, though. Anyway, feel free to tell me everything that I said wrong :).
- your bro in Christ,
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Resentment, bitterness, and unforgiveness are one of the largest issue involved in inner healing in today’s church and is perhaps one of the largest causes of physical sickness and disease. With many messages about the topic of forgiveness in virtually every denomination of church, it should seem like this would be an issue that the church would excel at. Sadly, this is not always the case and there may be a reason for that. Perhaps some of the underlying ideas related to forgiveness need to be removed because they are not biblical. Perhaps people do not always need to forgive when someone wrongs them. There are all sorts of new ideas about what the Bible really wants Christians to understand about forgiveness that are not exactly what is thought to be common knowledge for the church. To better understand forgiveness, one needs to first dismantle the wrong ideas concerning it, understand the Bible and forgiveness through two dimensions, and then see what biblically should occur for those who have committed an offense against another or had an offense committed against them.
In order to build a healthy foundation of what forgiveness is, one first needs to dismantle some of the wrong ideas about it by defining terms related to forgiveness and understanding the difference between forgiveness and other words that it is confused as being. Leah Coulter quotes the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament in defining forgiveness as “a voluntary release of a person or thing over which one has legal or actual control.” It involves canceling, removing, or releasing a debt that came through wrongdoing. It is not that the sin disappears, but rather the guilt from it is no more. Debt language is part of the definition of forgiveness because sinning is actually putting one into moral debt to God and to whoever they have sinned against. Those debts are only cleared through repentance – both to God and whoever has been sinned against. Repentance is not simply godly sorrow, confession, regret, a feeling, or an emotional experience at a church alter – although all of these can be important. True repentance is changing one’s mind and to do things differently. Jay Adams argues that the idea that may closely represent biblical repentance comes from Isaiah 55:7-8 where the wicked are called to forsake their ways and the evil are called to forsake their thoughts. It not only involves the decision to change and making all necessary apologies and restitution, it also involves the process of walking out the change. One other term that needs to be defined is the term avenge. It means simply to “give justice to someone who has been wronged.”
There are also a number of ideas that get confused with forgiveness. It is important to realize that there is a difference between accepting and forgiving. Accepting a person is based on the good that they are or do; forgiveness relates to their evil behavior. There also is a difference between excusing and forgiving. Excusing is when someone is no longer responsible for what occurred; forgiveness involves holding people accountable. Tolerating and forgiving are also different things. The former involves overlooking or ignoring what is occurring. Forgiveness involves what cannot be ignored or overlooked. Forgetting and forgiving also are different processes. People do not need to forgive what could simply be forgotten. According to Augsburger, “forgetting is passive, avoidant, repressive; it denies, detaches, dismisses… forgiving is active and aware; it is recognizing the injury, owning the pain, and reaching out to reframe, re-create, restore, reconstruct, rebuild, reopen what can be opened.” It should be clear then that forgiveness does not remove boundaries. There may be situations where a person will need to forgive a repentant individual who is in the process of change, but to force the person who has been sinned against to allow the offender complete access to their life while in the process of change is simply not wise or safe. Boundaries help the healing process until safety and trust can be restored – if they can ever be truly restored.
In order to truly understand the biblical idea of forgiveness, it will involve, not only dismantling the myths related to it, but also understanding the Christian walk and forgiveness in two dimensions rather than one. Due to the individualism of the American religious community, there can be a major overlooking of how important one’s walk with God is in the context of community. So often comments can be made about how “my walk with God is just between God and me” or that “I don’t need to ask someone for forgiveness because I already took care of it with God.” While these comments may not seem too wrong in the context of American culture, they run very contrary to the Bible’s approach. The Bible always indicates a link between one’s walk with God and their walk with others. 1 John 4:20, 21; 5:2 clearly shows this.
If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother. This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands.

Clearly, John makes a clear link in how the Christian walk is lived in two dimensions – between oneself and God and oneself and others – not simply in a unilateral approach. John is not the only one to do this.
The Bible lists the two greatest commandments. Not only are Christians called to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind,” but also a commandment that is “just like it,” according to Jesus: to “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Mt. 22:37-39, NIV). Jesus did not make much distinction between loving God and loving one’s neighbor which is why He had two greatest commandments when He was only asked for one. The two were just like each other in His mind.
Through out the Bible the vertical and horizontal are nearly always linked. In fact, if one were to study the Greek New Testament, they would discover that Greek is far more specific in its verb choices than English. Greek always makes a distinction between you in the singular form and a “ya’ll” – you in the plural form. English does not; there is only one word - you. In the context of the American individualistic lifestyle, many can read the Bible through their individualistic lens and think that when it says “you” over and over throughout the epistles, that these are meant in the singular. They really are in the plural. What is read in God’s Word was meant to be lived out in the context of relationship. Christians are individuals in the context of community. When one understands that forgiveness is meant to be lived out in two dimensions rather than only one, it will change how one approaches the topic. The proper place for reconciliation and forgiveness is through one’s relationship with God and community, not just the former.
Christians are commanded to forgive just as the Lord forgives (Col. 3:13) and to forgive one another as Christ has forgiven them (Eph. 4:32). Some would argue that Christians must forgive every sin against them because of this. However, perhaps this is not how Christ forgives. If one starts to study the Bible, repentance always proceeds God forgiving. This is seen in Acts 2:37-38 where Peter tells everyone to repent to be forgiven of sins. 1 John 1:9 hinges forgiveness on confession of sins. Luke 24:47 links repentance and forgiveness of sins. God loves to forgive sin and wants all to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). However, He does not forgive sins that are not repented over. Exodus 34:6-7 records that God desires to forgive, but that He is just and will not hold the guilty unpunished. Those that have not repented do not receive forgiveness. Adams states, “Repentance is a prerequisite to forgiveness because until one rethinks his attitudes and actions, bringing them into conformity to God’s so that he thinks like Him, there is no possibility for the change of lifestyle implied in the plea, ‘Forgive me.’ Neither reconciliation nor communion with God and neighbor is possible.” The emphasis on healthy horizontal relationships to have a healthy vertical relationship is mentioned in Matthew 5:23-24. “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.”
There are verses in the Bible, however, where one may try to come to a unilateral view of forgiveness that need to be explored. Mark 11:25 says, “And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins." However, it should be seen that the “you” is really a “you” in the plural. This verse shows the importance of forgiving others in order to receive forgiveness. Another difficult verse for the model of “no repentance, no forgiveness” is Luke 23:34, where Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” However, one does not know who “them” is. Is it those that are repenting about what they are seeing done like the centurion who realizes that Jesus is a righteous man in verse 47? Or perhaps this is simply Jesus fulfilling his role as High Priest in interceding for the transgressors (Isaiah 53:12)? Matthew and Luke also record forgiving others and asking for forgiveness in the Lord’s Prayer and make no distinction as to whether or not the person has asked for forgiveness. If these were the only verses in the Bible in regards to forgiveness, one would have to think that the Bible endorses a unilateral view. If one takes in the full council of Scripture, though, the unilateral position does not seem as favorable.
After studying what the Bible says in regards to living and forgiving in two dimensions rather than one, there needs to be clear guidelines of what a person needs to do when they sin against another. Leviticus 6:1-7 gives clear and practical guidelines how sinning against another is to be handled. The one who sins against his neighbor is to go to them and pay back what was taken and after making things right with them, then go to the priest to offer his sacrifice for the Lord. The Bible clearly show from Leviticus, and from Numbers 5:6, that sinning against one’s neighbor is sin against the Lord. The New Testament did not change things. Mark 5:24 says to go and be reconciled to that person before even being reconciled to God (but one should be able to feel to pray for God’s hand on the reconciliation process as they go). There needs to be true repentance, not just in words but deeds if appropriate to pay retribution. If the offender decides not to go, they should expect to find hindrances to their prayers as their will be no true repentance before God for forgiveness of that sin.
When the offender goes to repent to the person who has been sinned against, an authentic apology needs to be made. This kind of apology is not giving an account of what happened nor is it attempting to appease the person. It involves responsibility and integrity. It does not make excuses, comes with Godly sorrow for the harm committed, realizes that it may not deserve forgiveness, takes full responsibility for its share of the problem, and either implicitly or explicitly declares that it will not make that same offense again.
If the other person refuses to forgive upon offering genuine repentance and authentic apology, there is no third party forgiveness by someone else. One who was not the sinned against party cannot forgive what was not done against them. Ultimately, the situation will need to be left to the Lord and follow His leading in how to pay restitution back, if it is even possible.
There not only needs to be clear guidelines of what to do for those who have sinned, there also needs to be clear guidelines of what the person who has been sinned against should do. If one is in this position, they first need to give a vertical forgiveness of sorts. While they cannot forgive someone who has not repented, they can prepare their hearts to forgive if they do repent. Just as God eagerly desires repentance for those who have not turned to Him, the person who has been sinned against must eagerly desire to forgive should the person become repentant. The sinned-against needs to give up their right to revenge, bitterness, or resentment and put the debt into God’s court.
After preparing their hearts before God to forgive, they next need to go to the person (if possible for reconciliation and there is no risk of being abused, etc.). Mark 5:23-24 makes this clear when it says to leave one’s gift at the altar and then to go to the person and confront them. This is also seen in Luke 17:3-4, “If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, 'I repent,' forgive him." This first step, along with the second and third if the offender refuses to repent are given in Matthew 18:15-18:
If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that 'every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.' If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.

Therefore, it should be clear that there is a process of confronting three time with progressively larger groups to help bring about forgiveness and reconciliation. If there is no repentance after three times, grieving for the person who refused to forgive may be necessary. The sinned-against should keep themselves open to forgive should the person become repentant. If the person is a non-believer, the same basic principles apply.
When a person gets sinned against, there is a cry for justice that needs to be validated and affirmed. What the person did to them was wrong and needs to be seen as such and not glossed over. God is the defender of the weak and He is a just God. Therefore, if the offender never repents of the offense, the person who has been sinned against needs to release the debt into the Lord’s hands for Him to take care of. While there is no forgiveness without repentance, there also is not allowed to be bitterness, resentments, or revenge. Romans 12:18-21 gives a clear course of action:
If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord. On the contrary: "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head." Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

It should be seen that there is no place for revenge, but there needs to be a releasing of the hurt and offense into God’s hands for Him to deal with. It is important to be led by the Spirit in regards to whether to make boundaries to limit contact with the person or whether to invest in them as the end of Romans 12 indicates.
Reconciliation with God and even forgiveness is not something that can be done, worked for, or achieved; but rather discovered. Ability for forgiveness comes with the humility to realize that they are not in a position to forgive because of how great their need for forgiveness. The person who has been sinned against and the offender are more alike in their need for forgiveness than their differences. Therefore, “forgiveness is not an act of generosity or superiority but rather an act of similarity. It is the admission that it is all right to be like everyone else that at last sets us free.”
As forgiveness is granted, it does not mean that trust needs to be immediately reestablished. Forgiveness can be given and trust can be earned back in time. If the person has truly repented to the person who has been sinned against, they should have no problems freely doing whatever is reasonably necessary to rebuild that trust.
After dismantling the wrong ideas concerning forgiveness, understanding the Bible and forgiveness through two dimensions, and seeing what biblically should occur for those who have committed an offense against another or had an offense committed against them, one should have a better understanding of forgiveness. Through understanding the biblical course required in forgiveness, inner healing will hopefully be discovered through relationship with the Lord sooner rather than later.

End Notes: (still not sure why I can't cut and paste the little numbers... oh well at least you can see who my sources are by putting them here)
Leah Coulter, Two Dimensions of Repentance and Forgiveness, Class Handout from Theology of Forgiveness (May 20, 2009), 1.
Ibid.
Jay E. Adams, From Forgiven to Forgiveness (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1989), 97.
Ibid., 98.
Coulter, Dimensions, 1.
David Augsburger, Helping People Forgive (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1996) 28.
Leah Coulter, Rediscovering the Power of Repentance and Forgiveness (Atlanta: Ampelon Publishing, 2006), 30-31.
Augsburger, 159.
Adams, 99.
Coulter, Dimensions, 6.
Augsburger, 51.
Ibid., 40-41.
Leah Coulter, Class Notes for Ministry and Theology of Forgiveness (2006), 7.
Coulter, Rediscovering, 60-61.
Coulter, Dimensions, 6.
Augsburger, 155.
Coulter, Class Notes, 15.

Religion vs. Relationship

2009-06-13T18:45:00.000-07:00

I notice in my life that, when I am off-track, repentance facilitates greater peace, freedom, breakthrough, etc. Unfortunately, I think the Lord is showing me that I have this dangerous habit of where if I don't feel a ton of peace or whatever going on, that I have to figure out what I am doing wrong, because that becomes my key to more breakthrough... rather than the Lord.

I'm finding there is this subtle form of religiosity that the Lord is removing from my life. It is like I'll do something - say fasting. And then the Lord will give great breakthrough. And so then I become dependent on fasting for breakthrough... while fasting started as being all about dependence on Him. And while there still is a biblical principle involved with fasting so there still might be some level of breakthrough that will occur. Since God likes fire to fall on sacrifice, I can get off track and it can stunt my growth because fasting becomes my source rather than God.

I've noticed I did this with reading the Bible. It started with all sorts of stuff jumping off of the pages as I read and thoroughly encountering God through His Word. Through encountering God through His Word I felt empowered throughout my day. As a result, I made it a discipline (not a bad thing) but the times start to become not as fruitful because I had my plan of being empowered for the day rather than through really encountering the Lord.

This might be obvious to everyone else, but I guess I find over and over again, at least for me, how relationship can turn into religion when I shift to depending on the method rather than the God behind the method.

Quote

2009-05-06T14:42:00.001-07:00

"Being motivated to make a change is more important than knowing the change to make... Change is more a function of motivation than information." -Tony Stoltzfus p. 16 Leadership Coaching: The Disciplines, Skills, and Hearts of a Christian Coach.

I guess I forget just how much apathy there can be... and perhaps the reality is that nobody is motivated to change everything, and most everybody is motivated to probably change at least something. So maybe this comes back to what we prioritize... Maybe what we are motivated to change shows what we really value, not what we say we value.

Promotion and the Goodness of God

2009-05-06T00:10:00.000-07:00

Do you ever get the feeling God is just setting us up? He continues to overflow His goodness and blessing on us again and again and just waits to see how we will handle it? It isn't like He doesn't want to bless us. We don't have to convince Him to promote us - He already wants to. But He does not want us to be wrecked by the blessing. So He checks: Will we grow proud thinking His goodness is somehow due to us? Will we fall in love with the blessing more than Him and so make it an idol? Will we continue to see our dreams more about loving and serving people than about us? Will we get off track another way? Or will we continue - only through His grace - to steward and walk in thanksgiving for what He has given us and continue to move from glory to glory with ever increasing glory. It is illegal to work hard for His goodness (as I have heard some around Bethel Church say). That would only make us religious. Grace did it all, my efforts are not necessary. But my friendship and relationship is! For whatever reason, Daddy likes to bless His friends. So I continue to let Him move me more and more in friendship and more and more into His blessing. It really is not a bad way to go.

In related news: It is always fun to hear that the woman who had the cane down in San Diego with the pain that felt like a torch in her back and no knee cartilege and a leg that was shorter than the other was dancing around in church the following Sunday after receiving prayer the week before. I got good news for you: God is good!!!

Quote

2009-04-26T17:51:00.000-07:00

"Resolved: That all men should live to the glory of God. Resolved, secondly: That whether or not anyone else does, I will." -Jonathan Edwards

Fear and God

2009-04-25T22:15:00.000-07:00

I don't need God's presence in my life to accomodate my fear (in other words to keep the fear from happening). I need it to cast it out and walk in truth over the circumstances.

There is a major, major difference.

Fear, love, and dreams

2009-04-16T19:38:00.000-07:00

So I live in the climate of Bethel Church and there is often a focus on the dreams that God has placed in a person. While it is extremely healthy to have dreams, it can be very dangerous how people can run with their dreams in living in a narcissitic reality. I get concerned at times that people will spend their lives wondering why God isn't empowering their dreams. If those dreams are truly from God, He'd empower them to happen, right? Certainly there can be timing issues, but I wonder if there might be more to it.

Often, there can be fear related to the dream. While it is sometimes good to step out even when one feels afraid, I think it can be important to understand this a bit more. Perfect love is what casts out fear. Let's say a person has a goal that they will find ten random people on the streets and that they will pray to receive Christ after praying for them for healing (or whatever). First of all, it is a bad idea to have a goal that involves other people (as we have no control of it), but let's just say that is a person's dream for the short-term. If a person's dream is all about them getting a lot of success in evangelism, they will probably feel a lot of fear about it. However, if what consumes them is not their dream or how they might look if they fail, but love for other people, then there is no concern about self and the love for others will compel them to reach out and talk to those people (which will be a lot healthier for the person receiving anyway - they would much rather be loved than be a part of another person's goal).

I guess the whole point is that life was meant to be more about serving than having our own adventures and fun. And one starts to discover that serving others in what they are passionate about it IS fun!

More Healing info...

2009-03-26T00:54:00.000-07:00

I wrote this for King's Seminary. It is the nuggets that I enjoyed from MacNutt's books Healing and The Power to Heal and Blue's book Authority to Heal. While I like Bethel churches approach to healing a bit more, I think these books help give a good understanding to healing too. I will warn you that it is a bit long. It also is written in the first person due to the nature of the paper.

******
Healing is a primary theological issue in the church today. There are all sorts of debates regarding it: does God really heal? Does He do so today? Is this normal to expect to happen? Francis MacNutt and Ken Blue are authors with healing ministries. Their desire to see lives changed through healing has been one verified through extensive ministry and through their writings. In Mac Nutt’s books, Healing and The Power to Heal, and Blue’s book, Authority to Heal, they give an apologetic for the healing ministry, share their beliefs regarding healing ministry, and give ministry experience. From there works, I have pulled out the nuggets that I found to be particularly valuable to my understanding of healing. Consequently, this should not be seen as a manual on healing or a complete understanding of healing, but rather additions, clarifications, or even simply putting into words in a better way what I already believed on healing. As a result, it should not be seen as a comprehensive report on healing, in a similar way that 1 Corinthians 12 is not a comprehensive understanding of gifts but only a response to what was already occurring. From Blue and MacNutt’s books on healing, I have organized the nuggets I have gleaned into the categories of apologetics for healing, theology of healing, and technique in ministering.
Often, before the truth about healing can be understood, the negative understandings must first be removed. Consequently, it is important to have an apologetic for healing ministry. This will include adding ideas to a refutation of cessationism (the belief that miracles stopped with the last of the original twelve apostles), understanding the difference between sickness and suffering, removing ideas about divine determinism or an ultra-Calvinist approach to healing, and a couple of miscellaneous thoughts.
If cessationism were correct, there would have been no healings after roughly 100 or so A.D. when the last of the apostles died. However, since pagans were most interested in Christianity in the first three centuries because of exorcisms and healings, healing could not have ended with the last apostle dying off. As Dr. MacMullen of Yale University argued, the reason why ancient pagans accepted Christianity had much less to do with excitement over doctrine and much more to do with the power of God being greater than their gods.
Cessationism can, in the lives of some theologians, be a fundamental root issue with valuing non-essential doctrines over impacting another person positively. This is a problem that can occur in the academic community. It can be manifest through thinking that Jesus healed more to make a theological statement than that He loved people (although, at times, He did both, and not to confuse this further, but healing is a theology lesson). This can cause people to debate a theology of the importance of having compassion for the sick when praying, rather than actually having compassion. Healing is not about debating a doctrine, but about faith expressed in love for one another.
Most of the thought in Chritiandom today on suffering and sickness comes more from a Roman Stoicism’s idea of suffering than what Jesus said and did. Jesus did not divide people between body and soul and only care about one. He came to save the whole person. Blue notes that the word for suffering, pascho, appears sixty-five times in the Bible and only once is it referring to sickness and in that case the sickness was clearly caused by a demon (Mt. 17:15). In addition, when the word suffering was used in Mark 5:26, it was not used to describe the sickness, but to how the woman was treated by the doctors! James 5 further emphasizes this point by giving different remedies to those who suffer and to those who are diseased. It should be clear that the New Testament’s value for suffering should not also include sickness as the NT clearly views them as two separate things. It should also be very clear from when Jesus often lumped healing the sick with casting out of demons, that disease was inherently a bad thing, not a gift from God. There are no churches today that encourage people to remain in demonic torment because it is good for them to build character. In the same way, the church should not do that with those who are sick.
Another faulty view plaguing the American church is that sickness is a gift from God and when it does not go away when one prays it is due to His sovereign will. However, in the few instances in the Bible where sickness was from God, there was always a specific direction in order to receive healing. When Paul was struck blind by the Lord, it was not seen to be God’s will for him long term, but rather something only temporary after a change in Paul’s attitude and behavior. This makes sense. As Blue notes, “A parent’s discipline is only fair and helpful if the child knows what it is for.” In Mark 9, when the disciples were not successful in healing a boy through casting out a demon, they were not encouraged that this was because God’s will was for the boy to remain mute. They were accused by Jesus of shoddy work! This is not to heap condemnation on the body of Christ, but should cause all of us who do not pray with less than perfect results to have a desperation to have more of God’s power flowing in and through us and a much greater humility about any successes He does through us! Claiming God’s will is not to heal, though, is like saying it is God’s will for people to starve to death in Africa. Simply because something is occurring does not mean it is God’s will even if we did pray once for the opposite and did not notice a difference.
There are a couple of random thoughts that I liked. In regards to healing being only psychosomatic: “If Christian ministry and prayer can effect this type of psychosomatic cure they will have made a notable contribution to present-day medicine.” However, in defense of the doctrine of healing, clearly the following is often the most true: “For the believer no argument is necessary; for the unbeliever no argument will prove sufficient.” The particularly remarkable thing is that these people will argue adamantly for every supernatural thing in the Bible occurring but against every single one happening today. They should note the hypocrisy of this line of thinking.
After making additions to an apologetic for healing, there are numerous things to be added to a theology of healing from both the Word of God and from others’ experiences. Jesus gave his disciples as much of a command to heal as teach, so one would think that would apply to us as well. He also gave authority. Authority should not be understood as something Christians possessed as much as exercised. To exercise it, one must be under the authority of Him whose authority is being possessed. From looking at the Bible, it should also be seen that the afflicted does not need a “noble” motive for healing to occur. In other words, they do not need to desire a healing so that the doctor or some family member will see the healing and come to salvation. Jesus often did miracles just out of compassion for the person in need. When studying the Bible, there also is no evidence that healing is restricted to the extremely holy. Instead, we see normal people praying for others and the afflicted being healed. Consequently, there has to be a paradigm shift to seeing that this is for everyone and is a normal part of everyday life.
Healing is an extremely simple, yet extremely complicated issue. Healing, like sanctification and so many other aspects of a Christian’s walk, is so full of paradoxes and mystery that if one only wants simple answers and complete clarity they likely will be frustrated. It is so simple a little child can pray for another and see them healed. It is so difficult that there are numerous theological principles that touch on it and so it cannot be made overly simple like some have with statements like, “If you just had more faith, you would be healed.” Consequently, an experience should not create a universal method, like claiming a healing.
There are different things to be gleaned from other’s experiences that can aid in our understanding of a theology of healing. There are three traits that Blue found through all of the different healing ministries in the various denominations that are universal: a belief that God desires people to be healed rather than sick, a compassion for those with health needs, and personal investment and taking of risk in praying for others. MacNutt believes that healing is often a process. Many times there is improvement, but not a complete healing in the first prayer session. He also notes that in some instances where people believed they lost their healings, what likely occurred is that people thought the healing was complete but a little bit of the ailment was left and the rest grew back. It should also be noted through studying experiences of different cultures that expectation, an aspect of faith, clearly relates to seeing the miraculous. Blue notes that in places with little to no expectation for the miraculous, that healing rarely, if ever, occurs. However, in places where it is routine to expect the power of God, it often occurs.
After studying a theology of healing, it is also important to learn technique from Blue and MacNutt. There is knowledge to be learned about the importance of compassion, understanding about faith, the importance of soaking prayer, and some miscellaneous ideas. If I am filled with the compassion of Christ, I will reach out and touch another even if it is against my own best interests. Jesus’ healings on the Sabbath were generally not looked at as a positive thing to the religious community of the day. But His compassion caused Him to extend healing.
It is not profitable to focus effort on gaining faith. For then I am putting faith in faith rather than the God of faith. Faith is having “Chutzpah,” a Yiddish slang term, or “going for it.” It is a boldness in believing God will show up! This is seen with the woman with the issue of blood doing anything legally or illegally to be healed. As John Wimber has said, “Faith is spelled R-I-S-K,” and it has much more to do with obedience and boldness in our God than taking ourselves too seriously. Canon Jim Glenon told Blue that the healing ministry is like “walking perpetually on the brink of disaster and on the verge of a miracle.” However, Blue notes, “If people are not lied to, if they are not flogged for their lack of faith, if they are assured that nothing can separate them from the love of God, then there is no reason for them to be damaged by prayer.”
There is a need for soaking prayer, especially with some of the “bigger” requests. MacNutt believes that many more of these requests would be answered if people could simply spend fifteen minutes a day in soaking prayer for the individual in need, much like radiation treatments. Now, instead of seeing a cripple and wondering if there is hope, when he sees a cripple wonders just how much healing could occur if there were only people willing to sit beside him in soaking prayer for many extended sessions.
There are a few more miscellaneous ideas related to technique in ministering. Their appears to be a much greater breakthrough in healing services than sometimes occurs when MacNutt is praying on his own. If we want to help more people, more large healing services are essential. MacNutt notes, “It is necessary that we be free of the need to prove anything, that we be free of any personal desire for achieving results.” Also, in general, it will be most helpful if a healing model will evolve through the practice and successes of a church rather than imposed from the outside.
Through careful study of Blue and MacNutt’s books on healing, I have organized the nuggets that have been gleaned into the categories of apologetics for healing, theology of healing, and technique in ministering. As I finish writing this, it has awakened me even further to the importance of healing being involved in the church. The ancient prayer quoted by Blue adequately summarizes the churches’ (as well as my own!) need for understanding on healing, “From cowardice that shrinks from new truth, from laziness that is content with half-truth, from arrogance that thinks it knows all truth, O God of Truth, deliver us.”

1 Francis MacNutt, Healing (Notre Dame, IN: Ave Maria Press, 1999), 13.
2 Ibid., 46.
3 Ibid., 35.
4 Ibid., 49-50.
5 Ken Blue, Authority to Heal (Downer’s Grove, IL: IVP Press, 1987), 28-29
6 MacNutt, Healing, 64-65.
7 Blue, 26.
8 MacNutt, Healing, 67.
9 Francis MacNutt, The Power to Heal (Notre Dame, IN: Ave Maria Press, 2007), 70.
10 Ibid., 67.
11 MacNutt, Healing, 9.
12 Blue, 157.
13 MacNutt, Healing, 79.
14 Ibid., 74-75.
15 Blue, 151.
16 MacNutt, Healing, 108.
17 Blue, 122-123.
18 MacNutt, Power, 32.
19 Blue, 60.
20 MacNutt, Healing, 85.
21 Ibid., 95.
22 Ibid., 103-105.
23 Blue, 114.
24 Ibid., 115.
25 MacNutt, Healing, 161.
26 MacNutt, Power, 55.
27 Ibid., 175.
28 Ibid., 186.
29 MacNutt, Healing, 122.
30 Blue, 120.
31 Ibid., 18.

Edit: For whatever reason, it did not put the little footnote numbers in my paper when copied it over here, so if anyone really wants to know which quote lined up with which endnote, let me know and I can find it.

Faith and Common Sense/Wisdom

2009-03-17T23:46:00.000-07:00

I am extremely stereotyping, but only to make a point - it seems we have two types of people floating around in the church today - the faith community and the wisdom/common sense community. For example, when one runs into problems the faith community looks to God and the common sense/wisdom community looks to see what they can do to fix the situation - a "God helps those who help themselves" (which unfortunately, is nowhere in the Bible) type of model.

It is as though the faith community, when run to their logical extreme (again I am grossly exaggerating), can think I am believing God for finances, but I don't want to apply for a job because I don't want to make it look like my faith is in the job and not in God. Or I am believing for healing, but I don't want to change the way that I eat to eat more nutritiously, because I don't want my faith to be in the nutrition and not in God, or even get a check-up to see if I am healed because I do not want my faith in doctors, only God. So, for the sake of preserving faith, wisdom and common sense can get thrown out the window.

The common sense group sees a problem and (again, I am exagerrating to make a point) figures out how they can fix the problem on their own. They may pray once about it, but that's just because they figure that that is the right thing to do - not that they would actually think God would do something. So they try to figure out by willpower how they can make things happen. They can easily become burnt-out, frustrated, religious, and depressed because it seems like, although some things in life can be fixed with just a bit more willpower, that many can't. Just reading the Bible for a few more minutes or fasting once didn't fix the problem. So they can be very disillusioned with God.

As a side point, I think many areas of life are interrelated. So I will focus on a few issues and make parallels to what I was saying above. Let's go after healing and purity. In regards to purity, let's say a guy from work who struggles with impurity came up to me and said, "I quit watching movies with sex scenes in them and I'm reading my Bible for 45 minutes a day, however, I don't feel like I'm getting any better. I think I probably won't do those changes any more as they don't seem to help." One needs to note the following: We as humans are much more complex than we like to think and substantially more screwed up than we would like to believe. There is this idea that if one or maybe, at the most, two things in my life were adjusted, that everything would work perfectly. So while the two changes are good, common-sense changes to make, the reality is that if his hope is in those changes, or even that the next change is going to be what will bring breakthrough, he probably has missed the whole point. The point isn't that one more little tweaking will make the difference but rather a whole radical paradigm shift. Purity does not come from one tweaking here or there. It is from Him. It is a part of who He is. It is something we continually gain through ongoing relationship with Him. So if I were to tell that person - generally, a necessary step for a person who is going to walk in purity is to have healthy open relationships with a few people that know everything about you and will hold you accountable, if they think that making that change will fix things, they again missed the whole point. Their eyes are on making a change that will fix them rather than on God. One has to keep their eyes on God and live in dependence on Him for purity, all the while changing and shifting things that need to be done so. To take one's eyes off of God and putting them back on oneself and what one can do to make victory happen is to miss the whole point.

I think the same thing is true in the area of healing. As those of you who read my notes regularly know, I've been on a bit of an obsession with healing. Maybe this is from having had cancer before or maybe it is for a variety of reasons, but this is certainly a passion of mine. As near as I can tell, evangelism and fasting are like two sticks of dynamite that prompt the annointing level to go up greater and greater for more healings. Obviously, many other things factor in, such as spending time with the Lord, keeping my view of Him greater than the problems in front of me (I can't say I always succeed at this), not going introspective before praying, praying for more people, commanding healing instead of asking for it, get in the glory zone of His presence, focusing on that God wants to heal the person in front of me rather than looking introspective, and so forth. But yet, as I am in the School Planting Track at the School of the Supernatural, I am always contemplating how I would teach people about this. I think one can start to see healing in a similar way to purity. If one focuses on that they need to do this or that just right of the above and that will cause the person to be healed, they missed the whole point. They took their eyes off of God and put them back on themselves to get breakthrough on their own. For someone to say, "I commanded the health condition to leave in Jesus' name and nothing happened so I am not going to pray that way anymore" is to be like the guy who said that he started reading his Bible regularly but it didn't cure his purity problems so he's going to quit doing that because he doesn't want to be religious about it.

This can even work with finances. The "faith" community exageration from above might never apply for a job because they are just praying for God to provide - they don't want to apply for a job because it would show a lack of faith and that they do not want to look like they trust in things of this world over God. The common sense people might apply for 25 jobs, but then feel frustrated due to the economy and so forth and feel like there is no hope because their hope is not really in God, but in the economy, how much work experience or education they have, or whatever. The reality is that one keeps God as their source, but that this does not keep one from common sense and wisdom.

Herein lies a problem. Some people will read this and think that because all of the myriad of steps aren't in place for breakthrough to happen in one of these areas that there is no point in even trying. But just like the person with the desire for a job, sometimes only one application is all that is necessary to get a job! And no one knows when the breakthrough will occur, but if one gives up it probably won't occur! Honestly, the different lists is more for troubleshooting if one is trying and not seeing breakthrough to give more ideas, not to try to make things more complicated than they need to be. I wrote more about different things that seem to help me so that I can look back over it (the primary person I write these notes is for me :) ). So it isn't that all of these things have to be in place and one feels hopeless if they aren't. God takes us where we are at, wants us to overcome more than we want to, and is more than happy to help us in the growth process. And the reality is, is that quite a few things are just solved through going deeper and deeper in relationship with Him!

It is like we have this core principle of God being our source and we rely on Him and Him alone. However, that does not mean that we don't learn how to better align with Him. Maybe I am just really infatuated with Bill Johnson's theology of healing breakthrough, but it is sooooo true for everything, it seems. The breakthrough is God's - He's the source - but that does not mean that one may not have to apply some wisdom in order to see more or begin to see breakthrough. Thankfully, He is the source (and people and other things He works through) for that wisdom too! This really isn't too different than what I posted on here (my blog if you are reading this imported into facebook) to combine the notes from March 15, 2005 with March 22, 2007. Man, I love reading my old notes on here!

Anyway, God bless you guys and I hope I made things easier to understand than to make things more difficult.

What I learned in the past 10 days:

2009-03-05T21:34:00.000-08:00

Healing is far easier than I thought. I made it so difficult and filled it with religious striving - I can only expect God to work if I have done this and that and the next thing. It really is so much more simple. Because I believed I had to do this and that and the next thing to see a healing I limited God by what I believed. It really can be as easy as - healing has nothing to do with me, its all God, My God is powerful, He gave me all authority, and I can command with His authority backing me up. Healing is as difficult to happen in my life as I believe it to be.

I don't have spend my life feeling like I'm too busy to serve in the way that I would like. I can serve more (as I am able) knowing that some of the things I want to believe God for might only be released through service and that all of ministry is an act of service.

In an ideal world, as my heart for others grow, I always care far more for the people being healed than to see the miracle occur. This sacrifice keeps love and serving as a focus not simply the joy of God doing something through me. This sometimes, in the past, has felt difficult as many people I am praying for within about 2 minutes of meeting them and it is harder to care for the people that are unknown. However, greatness in the kingdom of God comes through being a servant.

God is instilling in me a confidence that He will show up and is dependable when I step out.

I cannot allow robbery by formulas anymore. It only causes me to limit God by religiosity.

When people allign themselves to God's Will - Evangelism through the Great Commission - they get bulldozed by the blessing of God and many things they are praying for get answered as they shift from trying to have God do their will to doing His will.

I already knew this, but a refresher: if I am overly concerned with what people think, I probably am valuing compliments too much.

A sure fire way to become spiritually proud or religious and consequently judgmental of others is to try to think that my efforts are what causes God to work in or through me.

If I am formulating ways (fasting, reading my Bible more, evangelizing more, etc.) to try to become more annointed and see more breakthrough and think my actions prompt it rather than God's goodness, I have taken my eyes off of what God says about all authority being given to us through the great commission.

I have no right to ever believe God does not want to do signs and wonders through me because I did not do this or that enough - its not about me.

I need to focus on worshipping God, not over analyzing myself to try to get breakthrough.

The reason why I love being saturated in the Word is not to get smarter but to change what I believe. God responds to what I believe.

How I handle another person treating me poorly when treasure hunting shows whether I cared more about them or wanting a miracle.

Fasting is fine as long as I don't make it a crutch and depend on it more than God.

If I feel fear in a situation and am checking to see if I feel bold or annointed enough I have taken my eyes off of God and put them back on me. This is a good time to worship Him.

I cannot look at my resources, but at His resources.

I don't chase annointing by religious activities. I am a child of God so He annoints me.

If I focus on me when I pray I have my resources when I pray. When I love and serve another when I pray, I am alligning much more with the kingdom getting the kingdom's resources when I pray.

My focus needs to be much more on worshipping God then praying for breakthrough. He wants me to have breakthrough more than I want to. I can rest in Him and simply do as He wants done, not feel like I have to burn myself out.

The focus of preaching should cause people to feel encouraged that there breakthrough is possible, not to make them feel discouraged and without hope. This should be obvious and I knew it before, but I think I probably disqualified people more than qualified. Jesus qualified even the little children!

Essentially, the Lord knocked a lot of religion out of me and put more trust of Him in its place. I don't know if anyone will read this and feel helped, but I am probably writing it more for me to review and go over to remind myself.

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I wrote a note called breakthrough a little bit ago in which I probably should have quoted Bill Johnson in it. Certainly some of the ideas came from him. I wanted to talk a little more about it, and realize that I am sharing His idea and maybe expanding on it a little, which I thoroughly love.

A. B. Simpson said that Sanctification is God's work. It is our responsibility to consecrate, surrender, and dedicate ourselves to Him, but only God sanctifies. I personally love this. Essentially, the breakthrough is God's and we allign with it - as Bill talks about. Many think that there dedication will be what changes them. And while it is true that passiveness and apathy don't change anything, the reality is that if one believes their dedication will change everything that needs to be changed in them, they will probably be burnt-out, very religious, or a workaholic or something like that. The reality is that the dedication needs to be there, but the focus is not on the dedication, but on God the one who sanctifies. In the same way with healing, it is not that commanding a healing as a magic ritual produces the healing, or else one just took their eyes off of the healer. However, if one refuses to ever command a healing, they likely may not see very much of a breakthrough. Is the commanding magical? No, it is just alligning up more with God's breakthrough. Is dedicating oneself to the Lord magical? No, it is just aligning oneself up to God's breakthrough. However, people are complicated and often one thing is not the magic bullet. We like to think if I just do this, then that will change everything. The reality is that if we keep our focus more and more on Him and align as He shows us to is how breakthrough tends to occur more and more. The breakthrough is His and we through His goodness and revelation align more and more with it.

I talked back a bit ago about overcoming. While I hope it was clear, I wanted to make sure that no one thinks that I was advocating that anyone is perfect in this lifetime. Are you kidding me?? I only was wanting to advocate that I refuse to believe that people have to live cutting themselves, injecting things in themselves, snorting things, with a habit of pornography, starving themselves, throwing up what they have recently eaten, under a cloud of constant overwhelming fear, and so forth. This is not the abundant life and to believe that these things have to be a part of life and that there is no hope of overcoming is a bit off from what the Bible presents as truth. Will people who have overcome some of these things do anything wrong ever? Obviously. But one can maintain permanent victory over the addictions that previously entangled them only through the grace and goodness of God. If I did not believe this, I would never have worked at Teen Challenge.

Differences in prayer

2009-03-05T21:30:00.000-08:00

I got this from Pastor Rick Wood. I love it. Its the difference between how I thought prayer was supposed to be and acted and how Bethel and some of the other signs and wonders churches pray. I'll tell you the new is so much more fun and effective than the old.

Old and New Wine Skin Praying

Old New

Begging Declaring

Pray hard Pray believing

Many words Fewer words

Belief during prayer Belief after prayer

Reactive Proactive

Talk about problem Talk to the problem

Stopping devil and curses Releasing God and blessing

Focusing mainly on problem Focusing mainly on testimonies and promises

Mostly asking Mostly thanking

God is reluctant and/or hindered God is good and has already won victory

Uncomfortable with silence Values soaking prayer

Worship prepares for prayer Worship is prayer

Intercession dominates church Intercession is one part of diversified prayer plan

Fasting from things Fasting to things

Fasting is an event Fasting is a lifestyle

Burdened Joyful

Laughing is rare Laughing is frequent

Focusing on the duties of prayer Seeking the depths of God

Spiritual attacks are positive signs Expect God’s protection/blessing after prayer

Watch the Trailer

2009-02-19T23:30:00.000-08:00

http://www.fingerofgodfilm.com/#/trailer/

And then buy the movie! It will be well worth your money!

Breakthrough

2009-02-17T03:12:00.000-08:00

For those of you who have read these notes for a while know, I place an importance on quitting (see my March 6 [if you are reading this on my blog]or 7th [if you are reading on facebook] note of 2008). It isn't that one quits what they are doing or the breakthrough they are trying to get, its that they quit trying to get breakthrough through their own spiritual efforts. There has been numerous times in my life that certain things I thought I was good at disappeared. I couldn't function that way anymore. While some might say that I was under spiritual attack and just needed to press through it or whatever, the reality is that generally I started to walk in pride over that area or build an identity about how I had that breakthrough. I remember doing that with thinking I was bold and then I was as fearful as could be. Then I realized that boldness is not something I possess, but something God gives me through relationship. When I walk in pride or create a false identity, it is not that God is a mean God and tries to take things from me. The reality is that I never really possessed it and I moved away from His blessing. It is like there is a river of His blessing where the combination of my brokenness and desperation meets His goodness enabling breakthrough. However, lest I think that I can take credit for it, or even think that my formula of brokenness and desperation caused God to work, I will be mistaken and realize that the breakthrough I perceived to be my own never was my own. Perhaps when people say that there is an ebb and a flow to God's Spirit what they are really referring to is there being and ebb and a flow to them living in God's river of breakthrough. It isn't that God's Spirit decides to ebb today as much as we through a false identity and pride have pulled ourselves from the river. I think this is why I sometimes get concerned about people pressing in to get victory. It isn't that one claims their victory enough by decleration that it convinces God to give it to them (although declaring the truth over one's life can be extremely valuable. God is so good. He wants me to have and live in breakthrough even more than I want to have it. However, He wants us to fall in love with Him more than the breakthrough. The breakthrough has to lead us to Him more and more or else we were only using Him.

There is a danger in talking of the importance of quitting when most of the church hasn't even begun to wake up to what pressing in is. To tell someone to quit by their own efforts when they think pressing in is moving from 15 minutes to 30 minutes in their quiet time is ridiculous. They have "not yet begun to fight." In the same way, there are those that think confession and repentance are the same thing. I have noticed that quite a few times (note: certainly NOT all of the time) when I don't feel forgiven after confession it is because repentance has not truly taken place. Repentance being defined as truly being willing to do anything, change any part of life, talk to any person that might be able to help us, ask forgiveness of anyone, and so forth. The reality is that most aren't broken or desperate enough to be free. And often they try to read the Bible to come up with reasons of why they were not meant to be free (like viewing their issue to be their thorn in the flesh or whatever). The reality is that there is no desperation to be free. Breakthrough was meant to cause people to fall in love with the one who gives breakthrough. Because the breakthrough is His, not theirs. They just allign with it. So one can only indirectly cause breakthrough. It comes from God. One can keep themselves from it through pride, lack of relationship, or whatever. But it is ultimately a gift from Him. It is there that one gets to be in the river of living in His breakthrough. Therefore, breakthrough is not something I press into as much as die to get into. The Bible talks about that the harvest comes after the seed dies in the ground. I think there is a danger in having a huge plan for harvest with no death. A lot of times the brokenness allows one to live in the river. While it is important to have a vision for one's life and so forth, the reality is that if the vision is about me and trying to get God to accomplish my vision, I have missed the whole point. One needs to hold on tight to their vision against those who would belittle it or the doubts or fears that could come. However, one needs to keep a very loose grip on their vision with the Lord and even perhaps amongst some of the unbiased, wise people that one might allow to speak into their life (if they don't have an agenda to be gained by talking you into their way). The idea of me always pressing in for my breakthrough and wondering why God is holding out on me or feeling like if I just did one more think to impress God into giving me my breakthrough might not be a very biblical one, though. I think it also concerns me because whenever I get too focused on my breakthrough I tend to not care as much about others and have a harder time rejoicing in their breakthroughs (i.e. people tend to become valuable to me as they help me to accomplish my breakthrough even if it is a good spiritual thing to have).

To summarize all of this, Blessed are the poor in Spirit... for they shall see God.

About grumbling...

2009-01-22T20:58:00.000-08:00

"The problem with our complaining is that it reveals a dissatisfaction to others and really speaks of a lack of faith on our part in trusting God with our circumstances. Our grumbling is really against our Father." -another student at my seminary

My response:

Well said. To add to your thought: I think a lot of people either go into grumble mode or, as equally out-of-balance, don't-say-anything-bad-ever/doormat mode and can live like a pendulum going back and forth. The better choice is to process through things in a healthy manner with the Lord and/or others, be able to make a reasonable appeal, and confront others when needed. I think grumbling and being a doormat are far from what the Lord intended for His royal children (I'm reading The Supernatural Ways of Royalty right now. Can you tell?). Thanksgiving and intercession while in the problem are also always excellent alternatives to grumbling.

2009-01-17T18:45:00.000-08:00

For your entertainment, feel free to check out Bethel Church:

http://www.ibethel.tv/media/free/all/1/popular

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In regards to the Rules of the Christian walk:
I think as people start to really get a taste for His presence and seeing His Spirit move, they will hopefully fall in love with God. At that point the relationship is not about rules but rather about maintaining open fellowship with Him. If this is what one craves above all else, than the rules become only the parameters in order to keep open communication. The desire to walk in obedience will ultimately come as one realizes that to break the rules only often causes an internal death to His spiritual fire operating internally and, quite often, external consequences that only rip down what we ultimately want (as what we ultimately want becomes what He ultimately wants... which really is what we always ultimately wanted if we had only known... not to make this too confusing). Consequently, rules become something we desperately desire to keep, but are radically dependent on Him and His mercy to do so.

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I just got to hear Randy Clark talk about the gifts at the Healing School here in Redding. Randy's comment that the word gifts, Charisma, has the root word that is translated grace. He argues that God's grace is what gives gifts. While some receive them through eagerly desiring the gifts (which is only God's grace that woos them), others receive them strictly on His grace. Therefore, one should not be surprised when some of the most unlikely vessels walk in some intense power! If they were works based, they would not be called Charisma!

A few seminary posts:

2009-01-11T00:28:00.000-08:00

I think there is information to be learned in how Jesus revealed Himself. Since God did come and show Himself - through Jesus - we should see how He showed Himself.

I think there is a part of God that wants people to want Him. He wants to see if we really want Him or only when it is easy to have relationship with Him. Since God valued sacrifice over and over throughout the Bible (chiefly in the death of Jesus), He wants to know if we want Him only when He is easily revealed or if we love Him enough that we are willing to sacrifice anything in order to have more of Him and His presence. In Luke 24:28 and Mark 6:48, it appears that Jesus has no problem taking some initiative with His followers, but eagerly desires them to pursue Him. In James 4 we see that we are to draw near to God and He will draw near to us. I think God reveals more and more of Himself as we fall more and more in love with Him. Brian Johnson has a lyric in his song We Believe that says, "You reveal your secrets and all of your mysteries to those who have fallen completely in love with you." I am firmly convinced that God is looking for those who will decide that He is worth whatever sacrifice to be made to truly know (in my mind, this should be an easy choice to make as there is nothing in this world that satisfies for longer than a minute or two, and living a narcissistic life for pleasure is extremely empty and eventually depressing). I think the apostle Paul was definitely one of those with the remarks made in Phil. 3 about considering everything a loss in comparison to knowing Christ. So God will show more and more as He is invited and pursued (both individually and corporately). To try to uncover all of God without seeking to know Him is to almost treat Him as a prostitute: only to use Him for one's own benefits. The reality is that God's eyes are looking to and fro throughout the earth looking for someone who has truly fallen in love with Him and wants to live out His desires - rather than seek Him to bless what they want done. While these things might be the same, the approach is radically different. In the former, one lives in peace and joy with the Lord as they see Him fight the battles for them (sure, it might be on His timetable and not ours but He still provides the ability to remain content with the unresolved issues of life). The latter leaves one wondering why God is holding out on them and is more like manipulation. I think the end of 1 Corinthians 2 shows how the way to understand God is through the Spirit. Those who spend very little time filled with the Spirit will probably spend life asking a lot more questions than uncovering answers that come through His revelation and revealing of Himself. This is not to say anyone ever gets all of their answers solved. Bill Johnson has said something along the lines of, "Any God I could absolutely understand is probably not one that I want to serve."

So, to summarize, I think, in general (this is not a debate about unreached people groups), the Lord shows enough to invite in relationship and waits to see who are hungry.

*******************
One issue that I hear mentioned in this thread is in regards to how we respond when we blow it. I think there are two sides that are out of balance.

I think we can look at numerous people in the Bible who did not care at all about the sin in their life. They continued to live in ways that were contrary to what God had and could care less. The consequences of this spiritual apathy cost many of them very dearly. Many of the OT kings would be example of what I am referring to.

However, equally out of balance is living in guilt and/or shame. Martin Luther is a perfect example of a man who spent a lot of time with a guilty conscious. It is very easy for a Christian to live in a cesspool of guilt, think that this is the way that they are called to holiness and essentially be taken out of being used by God because of a never ending internal witch hunt. I remember talking to a guy who thought that guilt and shame were good for him. I asked him if they ever caused much change in his life for the positive. It did not appear that there was much internal change as a result of what he thought was good for him except picking a few external bad pieces of fruit. There was no internal heart change that came from guilt and shame. Perhaps the only reason why he thought they were good is because they temporarily pulled him out of spiritual apathy. However, guilt and condemnation are out of balance and unable to free people just as much as spiritual apathy is.

I think the biblical response is neither of these two. While different issues require different responses, I think things that have greatly helped me are:
1) Take sin seriously. Repent seriously, not flippantly. Then line up with truth. 1 John 1:9 says that he has now cleansed me from ALL unrighteousness. Therefore, line up with truth and do not claim that Jesus' work was not enough by trying to punish myself. But, at the same time, do absolutely, positively whatever it takes to have change. There is no cost that is not worth paying for freedom.
2) Find someone who is walking in victory in what I want to walk in victory in. Learn from them. Discover how they got to where they did. Do not assume that because I have not experienced victory on my own with God or in talking to people that similarly struggled that this is simply "my cross to bear" or "my thorn in the flesh." I have seen some say that some things are impossible that I see others that are walking in victory over.
3) Trace back mindsets. What were my mindsets (lies I was believing) that prompted the negative fruit. Change the mindsets to truth.
4) Approach the Christian life holistically. The Spirit empowers us for everything, not just a few things. Therefore, all of life must be changed, not just the sin issues I do not like.
5) Realize that we are not internal producers of righteousness. In other words, our striving does not produce much of any kind of breakthrough. It is through relationship and changing what I believe that causes breakthrough.

Those are just a few things that come to mind, and obviously not even close to comprehensive. However, I only wanted to note the difference between guilt vs. spiritual apathy as near as I understand.

God's Will

2009-01-10T15:50:00.001-08:00

While I completely agree with the idea of the sovereignty of God, I sometimes get concerned with how I hear some present it. Some present it such that everything that happens in this world is God's will - I think much occurs that God is not in favor of. For example, even though it is God's will is that no one should perish (2 Peter 3:9), it does not mean that no one will perish.

However, I think my biggest concern in regards to those in the Calvinist camp is that one fails to see how my interactions influence God's will. For example, if I walk in pride, God's will is that I am opposed by Him. If I walk in humility, God's will is to give me grace. This is clear from both 1 Peter 5:5 and James 4:6. As a result, I know I have seen God respond differently about things I have prayed for in different circumstances based on whether I was walking in pride. If I were to simply have prayed while walking in pride, not seen a breakthrough, and attributed the results that God did not want to do what I prayed for, I would have mistaken God's will to being much more of an external manifestation instead of internal. A clear biblical example of this would be the Israelites going to the promised land. It should be clear that God's will for them was to go to the promised land. However, due to their grumbling and other issues, God's will was that they walk around the Sinai peninsula for many years. If the people simply thought that "God's will is for me to walk around the Sinai" without ever bothering to consider WHY God's will was for them to walk around Sinai, might have caused a radical change in what was occurring in their lives. So while I completely believe in the Sovereignty of God, I am horrified as to how I hear many people present it.

This might be repetitive from an earlier post...

Grace

2009-01-08T20:49:00.000-08:00

I wrote this in regards to someone saying that they were wrestling with condemnation as a result of not feeling like they had done what they felt God had told them to.

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I can certainly relate to you in regards to feeling the temptation to beat myself up or to not think God will want to bless me with more opportunities because I did not take advantage of the last ones. However, I think all of this is rooted in condemnation. I think it was only in the last few months that I started to see how big of a deal grace is. Grace is what gives the opportunities to do the things that will stretch and grow me. It had nothing to do with me doing everything right. At best all I can do is indirectly keep them from happening due to how I live. And grace will continue to give opportunities (if I believe that it will), even if I mess up the ones given in the past. While I seem to like to only believe for good things when I do everything right in the previous opportunities given, the reality is that the opportunities are a result of grace, not my strivings, spirituality, or whatever. While this may cause grace to be abused, I am starting to believe that grace in and of itself is wonderfully, incredibly ridiculous. Who would kill their perfect Son to give people who will not truly value what has been given everything? I am not deserving of it. But that's why it is grace, it is the opposite of effort. And when I line up on the side of grace in how I approach things is when I line up where Jesus died so that I could be positioned.

In case anyone wants to take my note in a way I did not intend it to be taken: Please do not think I am cheapening grace as a license to do whatever one wants. However, grace needs to be viewed as what sets one free from wrong mindsets and so forth - not a license to live in a way that is contrary to God's Word.

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And I wrote this in regards to someone asking how to defend their faith to an appologetics question about God being nothing more than one who tries to control and manipulate people in to getting them to do what He wants them to.
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God does the exact opposite of controlling and manipulating. Clearly, whoever has this idea has not looked much at the life of Christ and grace. God clearly gives choices and lets people have freedom to choose to follow him or not. However, it is only through obedience, which ultimately only comes through grace and relationship with Him, that one finds freedom. If one thinks that God is controlling them, they likely have a very poor grasp of God's love for them or the joy of being in relationship with Him. Or they might think that what they are hearing is God is really only a deceiving spirit masquerading as God (2 Cor. 11:14). Regardless, when one has a healthy concept of God they will realize that the Holy Spirit works through empowerment, not through control and manipulation. God just created a world that is obedience friendly, and disobedience unfriendly in how one reaps what they sow.

Very Interesting...

2008-12-29T21:37:00.000-08:00

This is *quite* remarkable.
http://www.foxnews.com/video2/video08.html?maven_referralObject=3365757&maven_referralPlaylistId=&sRevUrl=http://www.foxnews.com/index.html

An angel caught on video tape with a miraculous healing?? Here's Fox News discussing it...

Connection

2008-12-20T03:18:00.000-08:00

There are two paradigms. The first is to note that I am doing well in the Lord when I am connected to Him and to others and to note when I am disconnected. I will define disconnected as the inability to have relationships with others that are mutually edifying. It would come from approaching relationships with others from the standpoint of getting something from them (approval, validation, acceptance, attention, understanding, needing to be needed, or whatever) rather than to build into people or have mutually edifying relationships. This does not mean that one needs to feel like they have to build into every single person they come in contact with (what a recipe for burn-out!) or anything like that. It only means that in those that a person has contact with, that they are connected for mutual edification rather than out of selfishness to get something out of that person (this is also not to say that when one has a need that they can't go to someone that can help... my point is living life from the standpoint of selfishness or using others). Unfortunately, many in the church live very, very few moments of their life in deep connection with God or others, whether due to pride of not wanting to be vulnerable, devaluing of relationship with God or others (due to a wrong set of prioritizing what one thinks is important or satisfying), not understanding that it is possible, or whatever.

Some only realize that this is possible when they go on a missions trip or a retreat or conference or for about two hours after some powerful touch from the Lord (like watching The Passion of the Christ or hearing an incredible message). However, they sometimes rationalize that people weren't meant to always live on a spiritual high (defined as healthy connection) and that they have to get back to living life as normal. However, I would argue that nothing could be further from the truth. I think that what makes these events spiritual highs is nothing more than being connected with God and connected with others. We were made to live this way.

The religious counterfeit twists this. This mindset thinks to be a good Christian is to put on a mask, act nice, pretend that everything is perfect, and so forth. (There is nothing wrong with having a good day and responding and saying so or to treat others with kindness... I am not referring to this). This mindset thinks that doing well as a Christian essentially involves acting in a complete disconnect between what is externally communicated vs. what is internally occurring. However, since no one can act fake all of the time, invariably, the real side shows up when they are around people that they do not feel the need to spiritually perform for. Therefore, the things of this world come out in those settings. The religious person thinks that they are doing well while acting spiritual, and doing poor while not acting so. This is certainly off as both are messed up just with different underlying root sins: spiritual pride, etc. vs. spiritual apathy, carnality, and so forth.

What people do not understand is that the religious paradigm was not the paradigm we were meant for. We were meant for the connection paradigm. I am convinced that as one starts to experience true connection they will start to realize that there is nothing else that compares. This is what Christians were meant for. While none of us live perfectly connected all of the time, this realization of how life is meant to be causes one who is growing in the Lord to notice what things stop this connection from occurring and what things cause it to grow. Reading the Bible and learning from others with some spiritual maturity can also be valuable in this process of growth of learning about what aids in connection (as well as being of value IN connection!). I am convinced the process of sanctification has much more to do with the process of maintaining healthy connection (since He is the source of everything good) and having life changed as this occurs from only erratically to much more frequently, rather than in merely trying to do more religious behaviors, attitudes, or actions that can only perpetuate disconnect.

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I thought it was very interesting. Bill Johnson spoke last week on how whenever he used to live in introspection in his desire to become more holy, he always felt discouraged but when he just let go of that and lived in celebration and rejoicing in the goodness of the Lord life went well. He finally realized that for the sake of those around him, he needed to approach life from the standpoint of rejoicing and thanksgiving rather than introspective witch hunts. He could simply approach life that all is well between him and the Lord until God shows Him otherwise. When He does, Bill could make quick changes and continue rejoicing.

I loved this message. It prompted me to look at my concordance (note: it isn't very thorough: I only used the little one at the back of my Bible). What I saw was that when I looked for the word search, the Bible seemed to focus that the searching was on God or His attributes, not internally. While it is important to understand what negative mindsets creates the negative fruit that is occurring in one's life and why one does what they do, the goal is not to spend one's life searching internally, but rather to God, wisdom, and the other things that God says to search out. Truly, the Christian life is about Entering His gates with Thanksgiving and His courts with praise (Psalm 100:4).

Impartation

2008-12-18T23:48:00.000-08:00

So this was simply a few thoughts I had towards Bill Johnson's message today at school. Those at school today can certainly feel free to comment to let me know if I am coming to a more proper understanding...

Bill talked today about three ways to get impartation - through the laying on of hands, through word, and proximity. He talked in different ways about the latter, but I have a sneaking suspicion that this is what he is getting at. However, feel free to correct me.

When a person hears an annointed, powerful message there are a number of different responses which can be less than the best. One can respond in admiration and put the speaker on a pedestal. They can think that this person is far above them spiritually and all that really occurs is admiration. Another response is guilt or self-condemnation. One hears a message and because they were impacted by the message they feel guilty or they condemn themselves that the same things are not occurring to them. Sometimes (note: not even close to always) this can be based in an inferiority complex where they view that they could never have God do something special in or through them.

Another response, can be intellectual assent. They can be excited that new ideas were preached and happy to become smarter. The ideas get tucked away in mind somewhere. And while Bill is excited that people are studying things and growing in intelligence: if this is all that one gets from the message, they still will be missing out. Another response is that of one in relationship with the Lord where the revelation (what God is speaking through the speaker) comes with an empowerment because of the grace the Lord releases into the life of one in abiding relationship with Him. Therefore, the Lord will quicken this back to their thoughts as needed and it will become a part of Him. While I think this last part is part of what Bill is getting after I do not think it is all of it.

I think what Bill is looking for is a life alignment. Even though I may never have a conversation with the speaker, I can still grasp their heart for a situation or how they relate to God. And this is ultimately the real gold. To hear a mind-blowing testimony or way that God works that dismantles the box I put God in is of some value in that it will expand my view of God. However, it is of much greater value if I can understand the way that the speaker relates to God and come into alignment with that in order for the possibility of a similar situation occurring in my life.

This is the difference between being fruit chasers (or admirers or skeptics) and being established in similar manner to have the possibility of the Lord producing similar fruit through His grace.

It reminds me a bit of when I had cancer. I had all sorts of caring people ask how I was doing and pray for me. This was excellent and I was blessed by it. However, I remember meeting only one person whose immediate response was to find out how the Lord was changing, growing, and teaching me. I remember sharing with that woman (I think I met her only briefly at the health food store) and walking away deeply impressed with her. She knew that all I could do was spend time with the Lord and with that much of Him coming into me, that I probably was learning/changing quite a bit. For her to learn what I did without having to go through what I went through was remarkable. This is more of the root issue stuff that I think Bill was going after...

Thoughts??

Thanksgiving

2008-12-09T23:31:00.000-08:00

Over the years, I have come to realize that thanksgiving is the answer for nearly every situation. Perhaps this is why Paul tells us to be thankful for everything in Ephesians 5:20. I am firmly convinced that while all of us have numerous unresolved issues, the way to keep them in God's hands is not through surrender 500 times a day (although surrender is certainly important), but through thanksgiving. As we take thoughts captive with thanksgiving, it releases control from us to Him. Instead of a worry of "what if ____ happens" I can instead choose to think "I thank you God that you are in control of _____." Thanksgiving not only is of benefit in control issues, but also in humility. Where pride wants to take credit for something that occurred thanksgiving acknowledges the source. Instead of a prideful thought of, "I really did well when I... ", I can take the thought captive with "Thank you Lord for how you did ___ through me" or "thank you Lord for putting these people in my life that helped train me to have ______ go so well." Thankfulness deflects glory to where it is rightfully due and is not self-seeking. When I realize that pride is what makes me look more like the devil (what caused him to leave heaven) than God and is what causes me to be opposed by God in James 4 and 1 Peter 5, this becomes very important knowledge! The last thing I want to do is shut myself off from the love of the Father being in me (1 John 2:15-16).

I think thanksgiving can also pull stuff into being. There are times when I look at things and am unsure of my motives. (If my motives for doing something are clearly wrong, I need to ask the Lord's forgiveness). However, I am referring to those times where I am unclear. I can simply thank the Lord for how He is taking care of the situation and rest in peace. I think the Lord will also give those times where, if we are living in a deep abide, where He will loosen His grip on us for a split second to evaluate if I am walking in humility or pride. When I thank Him for the humility He is giving, it will continue. If I turn inward and try to conjer up ways I did things wrong, I will probably have a slow spiritual death by introspection, rather than focus on Him. However, this last point could be disregarded if one never has experienced living in the rest and peace of having Him fight the battles for you because thanksgiving has become a way of life.

Thanksgiving is of value in prayer. Sometimes we are interceding for something that the Lord has already given previously. Bill Johnson recently preached a powerful message on how this is the case. He said, "A lot of times what we think is an answer to prayer is stepping into what has already been given." He continued by saying that sometimes what he had been contending for a very long period of time did not come. However, when he simply changed his thinking so as to approach the issue as though it had been done was when He walked into breakthrough. [1] I know that this has been true over and over in my life. Even when something happens that I need to process before the Lord, I can simply process it and then walk in thanksgiving for how He is taking care of it. However, this has also been true on other issues too. However, in these cases, as one approaches in thanksgiving, they should also act on what they are thanking God for! Perhaps not all of the answer has arrived but part of it has.

This should be obvious, but thanksgiving should not excuse passiveness. There is a time to act and one should not sit around and do nothing and merely walk in thankfulness. For example, if I need a job, I should be willing to apply for jobs, not merely walk in thanksgiving for how the Lord is going to work things out. However, there is a role in doing our part, which is not being a workaholic (reminder to self), but then walking in thanksgiving for how God is going to take care of the situation.

another post for seminary finds its way here...
1 Bill Johnson. Sermon at Bethel Church in Redding, CA on 11/16/08.

The root issue

2008-12-04T23:58:00.000-08:00

I had this sudden epiphany today. However, to get to it, I will need to give some background.

Six years ago when I reached the rock bottom point of my life due to cancer, I did not know how long I had to live. While I had made repeated deals with God (do this and I will do that) before that I had virtually never kept, I realized, at that point, that I probably should not make another deal with God that I could not keep, so I made the closest thing to it. I had looked back at the 21 years of life that I had had so far and realized just how much time I had wasted. I came to realize that probably all of the good that had come from my life could have probably occurred in a year or two and the rest was just a waste of living life for myself. At that point I really, truly realized just how empty and narcissistic my life was and was thoroughly broken and wept at how I had wasted it (yes, that is right - I had a mid-life crises at the age of 21). At that point I essentially vowed that however long I had to live that it would be lived for God as well as to leave a permanent impact into the lives around me rather than for self. While I have blown numerous promises to the Lord (and still am perfectly capable of blowing this one), I would have to say that the Lord has been very merciful in not letting me get too far off track thusfar.

Now then, today at the School of the Supernatural, Danny Silk addressed the student body on the importance of living in a wealthy mindset instead of a poverty mindset - which as he noted, has very little to do with money. The poverty mindset lives life to survive or have pleasure for oneself. A big screen tv is nice because it gets admiration. So is a nice car, a good sense of humor, a significant other that is considered a catch, seeing God do a miracle through oneself, and so forth. It is truly a narcissistic reality. The wealthy mindset does not mind having nice things, but the focus of their life is much more about leaving a legacy to impact lives. They are not simply concerned with the here and now and survival. While they do care about the present and those in their vicinity, their ultimate goal is to impact the lives around them and to leave a legacy that impacts generations. Danny's challenge was to change one's mindset. That is when things made sense. God could care very little about empowering a person who is using Him to walk in pride. They will probably see Him work very little. However, God does love to flow through faith operating through love. This is the wealthy mindset.

When I thought back to some (note: not all) of the different people that I was invited to speak into their lives who are interested in going into ministry, I realized that I thought that by virtue of their going into ministry that they had come to this place of realizing that ministry is not about preaching a sermon to get admiration or trying to get God to show them something cool or do something cool to impress the people around them with. I simply could not understand why some people made the choices they made (wasting tons of time on entertainment and things of no lasting value, wasting tons of money on things that are only to get others attention, and so forth), until I realized that these people in ministry are still living in the poverty mindset. Their desires for ministry have far, far more to do with people seeing them than about seeing God touch the lives of those around them. This is clearly obvious by how they do not back their choice with their time and resources. This is such a fundamental issue. I think I counseled people on a lot more peripheral issues when the core issues of loving God and loving others were not their ultimate desire (meaning this is what controlled them, not their feelings, happiness, hormones, and so forth). To try to communicate someone how doing this or that is of value when they value pleasure for self more than leaving a legacy does not work because the two sides are simply talking in completely different languages. Often times, they would simply feel guilty like they needed to be doing more, but not want to do so because that would deprive them of pleasure in some other area. Consequently, they were torn because they still lived for self and only wanted God to be apart of their lives to the extent that was either a) fun (like missions trips that are fun), b) they felt guilted into, or c) they had nothing better to do. I often could not fathom why people approached God and others the way they did while completely deluding themselves into thinking they were ministering to others, but now I realized that the ultimate desire of their heart and what they truly lived for had very little to do with God (although they thought so). Until one's heart is sold out to the Lord, time with Him will likely only be based on guilt, if one feels like it, or some form of manipulation to get something out of Him. And they will probably be at least somewhat frustrated with how they feel God is holding out on them.

I think this class (I wrote this for seminary) really helped me to come to this realization. As we have studied the life of Jesus over and over, one can see how this man was gripped by a thorough passion for God and those that the Lord led Him to minister to. This would be the only thing that would cause someone to go 40 days without food or water, face intense persecution, and eventually get crucified. Clearly, the desire of Jesus' life in every aspect that we have studied (and I could go through each one but this is getting long), was to leave an impact on the people that He came in contact with. As ministers of the Gospel, if we expect the Lord to annoint and empower us, this must be the same. One has to realize that there is a far greater pleasure than the praise of man or the things of this world. While there are nothing wrong with these things, they pale in comparison to the joy of knowing in greater intimacy the God of the universe or seeing Him radically change another's life.

The Simmer Portion of My Brain

2008-12-03T19:53:00.000-08:00

Here's another post for seminary. I figure I just keep tossing these things up here and those that like to read a lot can try to keep up with these as fast as I need to turn them out for school. I have been very blessed by the idea of a simmer portion of my brain...

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While I am not specifically addressing any one issue brought up by this class I am addressing how learning can occur in general. I guess this is brought on by the Jesus, the Jewish Theologian book that I am reading for this class due to being here in Seminary. While reading this book some information presented seems obvious or information that I had already learned. I agree with it and so there is not too much to work through. However, there is some information related that really changes the way I viewed aspects of Jesus' ministry. It is not that I am challenging the book or saying that the book is wrong. Quite frankly, it is probably right. However, I think as Christians we can severely rob ourselves in growth if we feel like we have to come to a conclusion about things right away.

I remember hearing Bill Hybels speak at a Willow Creek Small Group Leaders Summit in 2001 and he spoke on Self-leadership. In his message, he shared how he had been presented information on self-leadership that was so revolutionary to his thinking that he could not initially accept it (note: this message is found in his book Courageous Leadership which I could not more highly recommend). However, he did not reject the information simply because it was not what he was used to. Rather, he let it sit in the simmer portion of his brain - as he called it - and let the Lord show him in other ways over the following months and years how that information was right. [1] When I heard Bill share this, I learned something that really revolutionized the way that I learn. There is a need to not feel it necessary to have an opinion about everything that comes my direction. The Lord was showing me today that the need to either accept or reject everything is really based in pride and would severely stunt my spiritual growth if I were to allow it simply because someone ministered, prayed, presented information, etc. in a way that I would not. This pride says that I already know everything that is right and wrong and consequently, will only allow information to be taught to me that I agree with. I would venture to say a large amount of the things that I really value that the Lord has taught me have come from letting things simmer. The reason for this should be obvious: the information that I immediatly think is right probably will not make as profound of an impact because it will probably be in some way similar to what I know. However, the things that are simply outside of my box or grid that I do not feel like I have to have an opinion about are some of the things that I really appreciate today because they have impacted me more because of how different they are. Those are the things that seem to make the biggest difference in my life because they probably stretch me or grow me in ways that I need to grow. This is not to say that everything in my simmer box gets accepted. Much does not. But I am extremely thankful for the idea of a simmer portion of my brain as well as a number of people of wisdom that I respect from a variety of backgrounds that I can go to and ask questions of to help come to the conclusions that the Lord would have for me (note: not necessarilly the same as the conclusions I want to arrive at). This process is of tremendous value because many times there are multiple perspectives to different issues and it is of tremendous value to understand all sides (or as much as I can) of what is occurring in order to not accept one thing that one person says and then get talked out of it a week later by someone with a different view. When I can truly understand a variety of reasonings, it really helps me come to a much more solid reason for why I believe something. For example, the Jesus, the Jewish Theologian book says this in regards to the feeding of the five thousand: "Before eating Jesus surely would have said a blessing. Jewish readers would have understood that the blessing was praise to God for the food. Then the bread was broken and given to the disciples. At an early period Christians somehow developed the idea of blessing the food instead of God. As was pointed out to me by David Flusser, in one important Greek manuscript of Luke 9:16, there is a distinct reference to a reading which may describe how Jesus blessed God for the food." [2] Clearly, the idea of blessing God instead of blessing the food is outside my box. I do not doubt that this is right, but for now it will probably go into the simmer portion of my brain until I can either research it more fully or until I can hear more information about it so that my explanation for it is not simply that I read it once. I think that this goes along with Acts 17:11 and the Berean church who were able to receive, but then could research the Bible and come to conclusions of whether Paul's message was of God.

1 Bill Hybels. Message to Small Group Leaders at Willow Creek Community Church. South Barrington, IL. 2001
2 Brad H. Young. Jesus The Jewish Theologian. (Peabody, MASS: Hendrickson Publishers, 1995), 123

Grace and Trust

2008-12-03T01:34:00.000-08:00

Maybe this is obvious to everyone else but me, but believing God's grace is taking care of a situation actually involves living like it/trusting that it is. If I believe something, I need to act out what I believe or the truth really has not become me. I had a ridiculous amount of schoolwork (what else is new?) and felt a fair amount of pressure. However, instead of trying to rush out, I actually just kinda went on that God was going to take care of it and I could simply work hard, but be at peace. It was so refreshing and I got so much done - much more than normal.

I guess this is kinda like a person who sins and feels like they have to keep away from God and punish themselves for a certain length of time. They know they are forgiven in their heads, but they do not actually live out what they know to be true. So they do not live what they believe to be true about God's grace...

Maybe these are applications of faith without works being dead (in a non-salvific way)? Just kinda tossing out ideas...

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The Awfuls
I think we can very easily have the "it would be awful if..." run our life. I think the first time I ran into that thinking came from Telling Yourself the Truth by Backus (STRONGLY recommended). For example, it would be awful if people made fun of me if I was public speaking so I won't. It would be awful if I got rejected so I will not ever ask anyone to do anything. It would be awful if this person got mad at me so I will try to say and do everythig just perfect in the hopes that they don't criticize me. It would be awful if I failed so I won't even try. It would be awful if... And so forth. Essentially, 'the awfuls" just keep people in a fear world where one truly isn't living for anything but living trying to avoid something. What an unhealthy existance!

I think part of love is seeing things from another's perspective. While I still think it is unhealthy to let the awfuls control my life, it helps put things in perspective if it changes from "It would be awful if I asked to pray for that man with the cane in the store and he told me no and thought I was weird" to "It would be awful if I refused to pray for that man in the store with the cane and he would have been healed and had his life changed." Now, like I said I still am not a fan of the awfuls, but I am realizing it puts things in perspective and allows me to not be as selfish (since the awfuls seem to care far more about my comfort, feelings, and fears than how others might be helped if I were to take a risk) if I can see things from someone else's perspective a bit more. I still do believe that I need to live my life proactive, not respond to mine or other's cases of the "awfuls." God, grow me up in this! May I live what I am writing by Your grace!

For Seminary

2008-12-01T00:07:00.000-08:00

When I write these responses on forums all of the time for Seminary, I figure I may as well copy and paste them over here so that anyone else that wants to read them can...

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I love how practical The Gospel of the Kingdom is. Far from a book that one just intellectualizes and even detaches themselves from their faith, this book is riveting with application.

Here are a few examples:
"We are a disobedient people. We argue about the definition of world-wide evangelization and we debate the details of eschatology, while we neglect the command of the Word of God to evangelize the world." [1]

"The biblical idea of knowledge is not simply the apprehension of facts by the mind. That is a Greek idea. Knowledge in the Bible is far more than intellectual apprehension. Knowledge means experience. Knowledge means personal relationship. Knowledge means friendship. I know my friend John. That does not mean that I have read a sketch about him in Who's Who and can recite some facts as to his place of birth, his age, his wife, children, profession, etc. I could recite all of these facts and yet not know him. I could know much about the man and still not know the man. To know a person means that I have entered into fellowship with him, that I have a relationship with him, that we have shared each other in the mutuality of friendship." [2] (italics are the authors)

Truly, the former refers to a false concept of Christianity. It is essentially the view of religion. The more spiritually mature one is is based on how much head knowledge they have. In this case, the Bible is not something to be applied half as much as it is something to be intellectualized, debated, and so forth. While there is obviously nothing necessarily wrong with studying the Word of God and debating with others, there does become a major problem if there is a major disconnect between what one intellectually knows and what they truly know (as defined by the second quote). I think that there are two things that are essential: One needs to act on what they know (for example, if one knows that evangelism needs to occur but it is not existing in their life, they need to make a change. They do not need feel guilty about it. They do not need to spend the next five years studying and debating in committees on it. And they do not need to feel compulsive that all they do is evangelism and they burn themselves out running around. But rather to simply and actually apply it. This works for whatever things that need to occur just simply are not in operation, and I would venture that if we are too busy doing things that have no lasting significance to do the things that do have lasting significence, that there are probably some priorities that need to get shifted). Secondly, I think there is a real need for humility. When one starts being stretched it seems to teach humility very well, but even in regards to what we know, it is important to not let that hold us back. Bill Johnson has said, "What you know can keep you from what you need to know if you are not a novice [having a child-like heart]."[3] And "It is nonsense to fill yourself up with theory without experience to back it up." [4] Consequently, in this stage of mass amounts of learning in Seminary, my application will be to not let what I learn only be something that I give intellectual assent to, but rather truly, in the biblical sense, KNOW!

1 George Eldon Ladd, The Gospel of the Kingdom (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing: 1959),136
2 Ibid., 72
3 Bill Johnson Preaching on 9/17/08
4 Ibid.

Quotes

2008-11-26T03:58:00.000-08:00

"So much of the church is in survival mode. They are simply trying to get their own desires for affirmation, attention, understanding, validation, and so forth met. But if you are still in survival mode, you can't be in dominion mode." -Andrew Kim

"Being nice is the religious counterfeit to love and being authentic. It tries to say that being a good Christian is to not step on any toes and put on a smiling mask. This is not the life that Jesus, the Apostle Paul, or much of anyone in the Bible displayed. It is an absolute distortion of the Christian life due to lack of vulnerability and genuine connection with God and others." -me

"The religious mind thinks that self-control comes by trying harder and adding more rules and regulations. While one may have to keep themselves from certain places in the process of change (i.e. one who is addicted to gambling may need to avoid driving past the casino), simply adding will-power and rules is really the unbiblical anti-Galatians approach to it. Gal. 3:3 reiterates that much. God's method of trying harder is to remove distraction from our life so as to prioritize relationship with Him, surrender and abide deeply so as to have His strength become my strength through His grace. It should be obvious then why self-control is a fruit of the Holy Spirit, not my fruit. Self-control is a descriptive word, just like all of the fruit of the Holy Spirit of what is occurring in and through the life of a Christian in proper relationship, not something one tries to strain and try really hard to get or work up." -me

I was getting in a good discussion tonight with my buddies and we were talking about how all too often the American church seems to have feminized church. First off, I would have to give respect to John Eldredge for his book Wild at Heart for not doing this. However, it seems we now make being a guy at church to be not acting in impurity. While I'd be the first to say that this is important and it is exciting how men are starting to be able to find the church to be a safe place where they can address and get free of these issues, one can fail to see that we have missed the whole point. The Christian life was NEVER meant to be about simply trying not to do something. It was always meant to be going towards something. When one truly embraces the Lord, being in His presence, and impacting those around them, it is an adventure that nothing can come close to comparing to. But since the true pleasure does not get tapped, people put false things in (because they want to feel good). So people become full of gluttony, lust, drunkenness, drugs, codependency, and so forth because they are missing true relationship. Lest one think that saying one prayer at conversion fixes this, they will be sorely mistaken. It is the ongoing delight of authentic relationship with God and being in His presence while loving authentically those the Lord gives me that keeps one from trying to get something from somewhere that they were not ever meant to get. (Of course, I am lumping all of life into one little box, these things are often a bit more complicated, for example, the joy of being in the Lord's presence might look a bit different when one is grieving).

In regards to theological debates...
"We must also ask ourselves another question: How important is this issue to the Kingdom. That is always the million dollar question. Sometimes we fight vigorously for issues that matter little." -Dr. David Seemuth

The Gospel of the Kingdom

2008-11-24T23:19:00.000-08:00

I wrote this for seminary. I figured I'd toss it over here if anyone wanted to read it. I refer to The Gospel of the Kingdom by George Eldon Ladd in this.

I enjoyed this book, but especially the chapters entitled "The Righteousness of the Kingdom" and "The Demand of the Kingdom." The first of those two chapters show how Jesus' message at the Sermon on the Mount were messages of action. One example of this would be that one should desire to walk in purity so much that they are willing to change any part of their life in order to walk in it. Another active oriented message of Jesus' was to love those who offend them and not react to them; but rather walk in love in whatever is the best way to handle the situation (if one takes the turn-the-other-cheek passage to mean that we are called to pacifism, they must also believe that Jesus wants anyone who has had a lust issue to gouge out their eyes or anyone who has stolen anything to cut off of their hands [this is the context of the passage]. Yes, there will be times when one literally turns the other cheek, but there will also be times where less than pleasant consequences will need to occur to teach the offending party self-control. As Danny Silk states, "The goal of discipline is to teach self-control, not that I can control you" [1]). These were not messages that cause one to respond in passiveness. The call was for action. I saw this also in the second chapter I noted. There was one quote in particular that I really enjoyed:

"The basic demand of the Kingdom is a response of man's will. Man must receive it. They must yield to it. God's Kingdom does not ask us to find in ourselves the righteousness that it demands; God will give us the righteousness of his Kingdom. God's Kingdom does not ask us to create the life that it requires; God's Kingdom will give us that life. God's Kingdom does not set up a standard and say, "When you achieve this standard of righteousness, you may enter the Kingdom." God's Kingdom makes one demand: Repent! Turn! Decide! Recieve the Kingdom; for as you receive it, you receive its life, you receive its blessing, you recieve the destiny reserved for those who embrace it." [2]

This quote simply warms my heart. There truly is no place in Christianity for lukewarm, wishy-washy passiveness. The whole Bible is all about getting people to make a choice and serve the Lord wholeheartedly. Where did so many get the idea that normal Christianity is only to put in an hour on Sunday, read a devotional book or the Bible for 5-15 minutes a day (if one remembers to), and pray before meals? It is not biblical. It is the furthest thing away from the first commandment of loving the Lord with all of our hearts, souls, minds, and strength and quite possibly could resemble what the lack of usefulness and lukewarmness that caused the message to the Laodicean church of Revelation 3 to be what it was.

Here in lies the problem. When one starts to assert these things, people often react in self-righteousness ("you better not tell me that there is anything wrong with my life" to which I only respond, "I only am quoting the Bible."), or guilt and condemnation ("I just really am not living as I should."). They miss the whole point. One's past is under grace. But one can decide today to make a decision. And once that decision is made, the grace and life also comes in order to walk that out (if they truly act on the decision instead of not changing anything, except an intellectual assent). Passiveness and complacency are the antitheses of what a healthy response is to God's offer of the Kingdom.
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Of course, one should note that response is not to try to pursue more religious behavior but rather deeper relationship... but I suppose that has probably been a theme through the last few posts on here...

What I am learning and Bible Intepretation

2008-11-15T01:36:00.000-08:00

My quote is my modifying a quote from Bernie Ooley:
There are those who twist the Bible out of context and read what they want to make it say in order to back what they feel like doing. This is a gross perversion of the Gospel, and a technique used most frequently in the Gospel by the Devil when he tempted Jesus. (For example, a guy I know told me his plans to fantasize over some strippers but then just ask God for forgiveness and all would be ok because we are under grace). Then there are those who become intertwined with the Gospel out of relationship with the Lord. As they explore and the Holy Spirit leads them into truth the Gospel may get taken out of context. This is a proven way that the Holy Spirit works started by the New Testament writers who repeatedly took the Old Testament out of context when they quote it in the New Testament. However, there is danger that one can still come up with some whacked up doctrines, so one should check their biblical revelations. If the "revelation" is contrary to the "Revelation - the Bible," one can be quite sure that what they think they got from the Holy Spirit did not come from Him. However, to not allow the Holy Spirit freedom to interpret His Word as He chooses, would be a theological principle that - if applied by the writers of the New Testament, would have caused numerous chunks of the New Testament to not be written.
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Now then, perhaps I was arrogant, but I did not know how much stuff would get changed in my life by way of spiritual formation when coming out here to the School of the Supernatural - which is really one of the most serious spiritual formation (defenition - one's own spiritual growth) centers that I have seen. I guess after spending 6 years living, eating, sleeping, drinking, etc. spiritual formation, reading a myriad of books that I could get my hands on, I figured that I'd catch a lot of review. And while there are numerous ideas presented which are very crucial and are good to be reminded of, there are three things which really have made a dramatic difference. I feel like I get blessed with so much revelation out here that I don't write a fraction of it down (from class, from seminary, and a lot of the time, stewing over different things presented). But anyway, one thing that I had never heard discussed (that are I have a bad memory or listened poorly) is the idea of "pressure to perform." I remember one thing I have always had to fight against is drivenness. I think I have a perfect temperament to become a work-aholic. I always felt like I had to fight against drivenness. But why? What was the truth I was neglecting to bring freedom? I had been asked if I am a perfectionist. I generally am not (just ask previous roommates about how neat I am, for example). I remember questioning if I was fighting against drivenness because of pride. I did not think I was. I could never figure it out. And then I came here to Bethel Church. And for the first time I heard Bill Johnson and others address the pressure to perform. And I realized "THAT'S WHAT IT IS"!

I think what maybe threw me off before now was that I heard people address performing (that is the idea that one approaches life from the standpoint to perform for people - they are an audience) numerous times and while that certainly was an issue 6+ years ago, I really did not see that in my life anymore. But the pressure to perform sure was. So what's the difference. I think the pressure is how one approaches things on their own. For example, in ministry I had to make sure that I did everything just right so I would put myself under pressure to do x, y, and z in order to hopefully ensure that the other person would get a breakthrough. I was driven on doing homework (talking after cancer days, not before) because of a personal pressure to perform. Wow. What a revelation. As freedom creeps into more and more areas of life, I have begun to see just how much a pressure to perform was rooted in me.

I really think a greater revelation of grace is about the perfect antidote. Just more of Him. Less of me. Don't look at myself to see if I have fasted lately in order to pray for another or see if I have read my Bible enough to formulize that enough has occurred for this or that prayer request to be answered (yeah, isn't that messed up?). Just go for it and look to God's grace. While it still is biblical to abide in Christ, have relationship, fast for greater breakthrough, etc. none of these things are to cause me to go back to introspection when all I need is to look at grace and the finished work of grace. Ahh, I love the grace culture of Bethel church.

Lastly, I feel like I'm really beginning to make a breakthrough in just approaching people everywhere (whether the grocery store, Wal-mart, or wherever) and just asking them if I can pray for healing in their bodies). Its a lot of fun. I recommend it to all. Simply pray a short prayer, command the pain (or whatever) to leave in Jesus name, and then ask how they are doing. Its God's Gospel... let Him be responsible to authenticate it with signs and wonders - pretty sure we are just the vessels - the jars of clay. And then let me know what sweet testimonies you get (cuz I love hearing about them!). Oh, and make sure to tell them about Jesus after He touches them and invite them to receive Christ!

Adoption

2008-11-14T02:16:00.000-08:00

I turned this in as a forum response for seminary. I figured I'd toss it up here if anyone wanted to read. Don't worry if the opening quote bores you, just skip past it. I'm sure a certain friend of mine who did a massive Galatians paper on Sonship will be wondering, "why didn't you listen to me better?" Anyway, here is what I threw down (and I did not do close to the research others have, so be gentle with me if I'm way off)
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On page 77 of our Everett Lindsay textbook it says, "Judging from the Second Psalm, the sonship is closely connected with heirship, for the very next verse mentions the nations as the divinely appointed inheritance of the Son. This becomes the issue in the third phase of Jesus' temptation. In the parable of the wicked husbandmen sonship and heirship are closely conjoined. The son and heir will die, not because the divine appointment has been withdrawn, but because of the wickedness of those to whom he is sent (Mt. 21:38)."

First off, all I can say, is "wow." That may not be what one is supposed to say in a response for graduate school, but that is what I am left saying. Truly, being called "sons of God" in John 1:12 is more than something that sounds really cool. It is the key to the inheritance. This quote really makes perfect sense when it comes in the context of Galatians 3:26-4:7. This passage could not more clearly link sonship with being the heir of the inheritance. It is interesting to note, though, that in that passage the son is no different from the slaves while he is young - even though he has the inheritance. However, when "the time set by his father" comes as Gal. 4:2 says, that's when the difference is truly seen in the son instead of the slaves. Logically speaking, it would make sense that this would be as he would approach maturity.

Now then, something that I was wrestling with even in the last few days is that even though the Bible is full of so many promises, why the vast, vast majority of the church seems to rarely see a trace of those promises. However, when I look at the church (at least the American one, I think it probably is a different story in China), it is filled with complacency, bondage, sexual immorality, pornography, fear, worldliness, resentment, and on and on. The reality is that it does not look very different from the world, except that many in the church have a fear of reaching out to the world (not realizing that their behaviors are virtually identical). It seems for much of the church there is no concept of doing the things that Jesus called us to - evangelize, abide in Him, forgive, and so forth and a strong propensity towards worldliness, all the while accusing others who may confront them on this as being legalistic. Sadly, the true adventure of being in his presence and loving and seeing God's power flow through us in prayer and evangelism gets replaced by vicarious living (whether through relationship or media), evil, and all sorts of distorted thrills because they are inferior replacements to what God has called us to. After seeing how Galatians talks about "the time set by his father," it makes perfect sense why the church sees so few promises. There is very little maturity. How can God give a promise to someone if they will only get proud of the promise and think that they are somehow spiritually better than another and compare themselves with others because of it? This is an incredible distortion of grace!

I remember when I first started pressing it to see God heal people that I prayed for. I could not figure out why God would answer all sorts of other prayers in my life but not heal someone. It was not until I truly got a revelation of Acts 3 with Peter and the healing of the crippled man that I realized that Peter's response is the key, "Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk?" When I truly got the idea that healing had nothing to do with me and that it was God's grace working and that God had to receive the glory like Peter gave him, was when healings started to occur around me. It is something so simple, but it really comes down to the smaller things. Could I let the Lord speak something insightful through me without getting proud about it? Could I avoid even being proud about having a Bible that is full of underlining and highlighting? Could I avoid spiritual pride when people complimented me about preaching well? If I could not even do this, how in the world could God possibly trust me with anything more? Truly, the process of growth involves greater and greater realizations of His grace both in and through me. It involved being concerned a whole lot less with man's opinion and a whole lot more with God's.

The preceding paragraph makes sense when one reads Millard Erickson's understanding of adoption. From p. 322 of his Introducing Christian Doctrine book, he says: "Adoption involves a change of both status and condition. In the formal sense, adoption is a declarative matter, an alteration of our legal status. We become God's children. In addition, however, there is the actual experience of being favored of God. We enjoy what is designated the spirit of sonship. The Christian looks affectionately and trustingly upon God as Father rather than as a fearsome slavedriver and taskmaster (John 15:14-15)." This truly is a profound revelation, which backs up my point. I see many Christians today just trying to get the Lord's favor, but they do not realize that they already have it! We are sons! Even bad fathers give their sons favor. How much more will good fathers (Mt. 7:11)! God just does not want His children to be arrogant because they walk in pride in regards to how they handle His gifts. And so He waits for me to grow in maturity so I can receive what He wants to send to me without it destroying me.

relationship vs. striving

2008-11-12T18:29:00.001-08:00

At the risk of over-simplifying...
I think striving for righteousness is a sure sign for insufficient relationship with the Lord... either lack of depth, neglect, faulty understanding of God and His love, improper realization of the identity He has given me, a block in expressing God's love to others, or whatever. Where depth in relationship checks out, religious striving checks in. Because what one can only do through relationship tries to be done through the man's perversion of holiness - religious striving and effort - which does not work. If it did and relationship with God was only for religious leaders, then why did God send His Son to die on the cross so that all would have relationship, not just the high priest entering the Holy of Holies? To neglect relationship and to begin religiosity shows man to be more like the Pharisees than carriers of the kingdom of God.

What I also think I have seen is that it can be very easy for us Christians to go to the one of these things (the first list) that has been of help before and overemphasize it. For example, I went through a phase some years ago where I would share tons with the Lord on prayer walks, but neglected reading the Scripture to change my views of God. So what was my faulty answer if I felt frustrated at this point? For me, then it was that I just need more prayer walks (since that was the only place I was getting some help). I was not realizing that I had neglected major portions of my relationship. Similarly, some can spend their whole life coming to an incredible knowledge of who God is and man's identity and can know these things like the back of their hand, but lack connecting with God. We were designed for deep ongoing connection based on truth! The Gospel really is quite simple, Love the Lord with all of your heart and love your neighbor.

Quote

2008-11-05T20:23:00.000-08:00

I saw these on two different friend's facebook accounts. What good quotes...

"When your memories are bigger than your future, you are already beginning to die" - Kris Vallotton

"If we don't live on the edge of impossibility we will reduce ministry to what we are capable of doing through our own gifts."
Bill Johnson

Friend of God

2008-11-03T17:57:00.000-08:00

A common thought (although many wouldn't be honest with themselves to admit that this is true in their own life) is that as Christians we spend only as much time with God as necessary to try to manipulate God into giving us what we want from Him. And while there is nothing wrong with believing God to work in certain ways or pressing in for more (purposely left very open ended... more of whatever), there is a much greater delight in being a friend with the Lord. When one enters friendship and openness in relationship with the Lord, the friendship is in and of itself a blessing. And, on top of that, the Lord blesses His friends! There is a better way! The key of David, intimacy with the Lord, opens doors that no man can shut and shuts doors that no man can open!

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I think one thing that is becoming apparent to me while I am out at Bethel Church in Redding is the paradigm shift. While many churches seem to emphasize what to do and not to do, school here emphasizes who you are, walking in relationship with Him, and what the Lord has blessed you with authority over and how to walk in that. I think I like that. Doing is a byproduct of being. If it one simply tries to do without any connection and relationship, that really seems to be the starting point of religion, putting up masks and fakeness (because for the most part it is only through Him that true and lasting change occurs). So we have relationship or religion... one Jesus died so that we could have and the other was what Jesus attacked the most!

Doubt and the Grid of Truth

2008-10-31T02:55:00.000-07:00

This is a bit long, but I think it is quite good if you decide to read it through...

I am toying with an idea. Different people have said different things are the root sin. I have heard some say it selfishness. Every sin is inherently selfish. C.S. Lewis said it was pride. However, I am toying with the idea that the chief sin is doubt. I don't know that I have fully thought through the ramifications of this yet, but more on that later...

Each of us have a grid. When we hear information spiritually we accept it or not based on the grid. I know some of the messages that I reacted the most negatively to is because it disturbs something in my grid (and of course, I view my grid to be right ¡) ). Our grid is not what we know in our heads. It is the reality we walk out of spiritually. It is what happens when we are in that difficult place when temptation could be screaming or life's circumstances are out of control. It is what we cling to.

Some people would say that their grid would include that they know God is loving. But yet they spend their lives feeling like they can't come to the Lord after they have sinned because they don't feel like they can. So they don't. So ultimately their grid is based on their feelings... that dictates the reality they walk out of, not the truth.

Here's the main problem. Many Christians have things they know to be true. They are in their head. Things like... God is good. God loves me. And so forth. The problem is that they don't hold on to these things when lives circumstances seem to indicate differently. They may know that they do not have to punish themselves after they have sinned (because Christ took it and I would be claiming His work was not enough), but the reality is that they think that guilt and shame are good for them to help them grow (even though it hasn't changed them from that sin issue in YEARS... if it hasn't in that long, do you really think punishing yourself will change things now??). So they don't live out of the truth of God's love for them when things are not going well, they live out of their feelings. The truth is not rooted in them because they do not HOLD to the truth in difficulty. They don't really HOLD the truth to experientially KNOW it be set free. In today's microwave generation of instant gratification holding to truth and clinging on to the Lord are not popular messages to preach and even less popular to live out. Unfortunately, it is the only way to experience any real lasting freedom.

Here's the problem. Because their is no clinging to truth and holding on to it even when it does not feel true, people begin to doubt the truth. They think that it can't be true because they don't feel it. So the "truths" in their lives they doubt because they can't hold fast to them. They don't seem to "work."

Doubt is such a huge issue because if one allows truth to be robbed from them by doubt, their will never be any real foundation for any growth to occur in their life. Oh, there might be tons of head knowledge. But this only causes more pride... and with it disillusionment, because the empowerment to walk out the truth is only something that comes by the Holy Spirit, not through man's efforts and pride. Remember, God opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble (James 4 and 1 Peter 5). So the proud, smart man has no foundation because all of what he "knows" he doubts and he can even walk away from the Lord because he thinks he is the epitome of the Christian walk (in his warped thinking, the epitome of Christianity is head knowledge and theology rather than character, surrender, and dedication to the Lord). Remember fruit is NOT a byproduct of knowledge, it is a byproduct of abiding (John 15). How can one walk in the fruit of the Spirit when they can´t get past the debate of whether the Holy Spirit even exists? How can one receive from the Lord if they get robbed of the idea that God is even there whenever they don´t feel like He is? And then as a result, they have no identity in Christ and they have no fruit because these are things that are impossible for man´s striving to achieve. They then have to control and manipulate or become driven to make things happen because there is no trust of God coupled with stewardship of what God has given them. They have to compare themselves to others and vascillate from pride to insecurity or depression at what they derive an insecure identity (the only unchanging identity comes from the unchanging one... i.e. from God) over because they have eliminated God.

There must be inherent truths which a person lives out if they are ever going to grow to any semblance of maturity in their Christian faith. Things that are unshakeable. Things that they know to be true and they will hold on to them regardless of what anyone tries to convince them, any circumstances try to dictate, and so forth. Once these truths are in place is when true learning can begin to occur. Future truth gets added to the foundation or already existing grid of truth. The problem is that too much of the church has not experienially clung to the truth both in the good times and in the brokenness to understand that numerous cliches and things that others have said (that all seem like fine things) really aren´t the truth... or they are a twisting of the truth. So they have to discover what the Bible... not their denomenation, favorite pastor, what they are comfortable with (for example, many people are uncomfortable with bizarre manifestations with the Spirit of the Lord but if they were to only read God´s Word they would see that there are an assortment of them throughout it... for example, Ezekiel getting picked up by his hair), or friends, or whoever... say is true and uncover it... all the while having trusted mentors who know how to get free of the struggles they are in, help show them biblically how to do so, as well as illuminate blind spots. It really is like the parable of talents says... the one who has the foundation and values truth keeps having it grow, while he who does not value it enough to hold to it in the face of opposition, loses what has been given to Him. It is a kingdom principle...

Now then, I was just asked by some friends what core truths make up my grid. I think there are many. After having gone through cancer, praising the Lord when worry or fear comes is one. It is how I take thoughts captive. If I don´t do so, my life is miserable and I come under the circumstance rather than above.

God is good. I know that He will always take care of me. Anything that appears to not be good He will work for good. I can praise Him and rest because of this.

God is my source. This is HUGE. This is why I am convinced doubt is such a big deal. And first I must say that there is a big difference between God being my source and presumption. I hear all sorts of people do all sorts of things, but because God is their source, God will foot the bill. The reality is that God is not obligated to finance your plans. I also can not frivilously waste and expect God to supply. God being my source needs to be coupled with stewardship in a healthy balance. To be compulsively obsessed in a condemning way about stewardship is not healthy, just as to ignore stewarding wisely what He has given me and just expect Him to be an enabler is just as unwise. This issue of God being my source is a much more foundational issue than finances. In fact, it is for all of life. I like to talk about love. Love is from God. It is not my love I give. It is God´s love. If I can tell that I have no love for people... that I approach them to get validation, acceptance, attention, etc. rather than to freely do those for others, I no longer am walking in God´s love (virtually synonomous with walking in the Spirit) and am now walking in the flesh. Consequently, I need ongoing fresh encounters with God, His Word, and His Presence, both corporately and individually (because sadly many Christians have a warped idea that it is either just me and God, or that I don´t need to spend time with God by myself because I´d rather hang out with others... both equally just as disastrous), in order to have any semblance of fruit being produced from my life. If fruit is a byproduct of healthy relationship with God and others and is produced by abiding in Christ according to John 15, than if I debate about whether I need to read my Bible daily because I don´t want to be legalistic, I clearly have no concept of what walking with Christ is all about and will probably never see any overcoming like that. Since prosperity is a byproduct of the meditating on the Word day and night... at least according to Psalm 1 and Joshua 1... to not be rooted in God´s Word will keep any amount of fruit from occurring.

You see, once one experientially knows the grid, it truly brings them to a healthy place of brokenness. Because they can know their grid, but cannot walk out empowered in what they know to be true. It is only in constant dependence and ongoing relationship that the empowerment will come. And this is the source of humility. As one is in relationship with God as their primary relationship (not what they SAY is their primary relationship), if they understand God in the truth of how His Word presents Him as well as understand themselves the way that He describes us, one can´t help but be humbled. I´m convinced humility is only a word that describes healthy relationship between God and man. It isn´t something one tries to produce. Like much of the Bible, the things presented are not something one reads about and then tries to figure out how to do (as if they have been successful applying about anything else that they have tried to do in their own effort. This clearly doesn´t work... I´m convinced just waiting for people to try to give up their religious striving to finally enter into real relationship with Him). So humility is a term that describes one in healthy relationship. Many other things are this way too.

Now then... I seemed to have taken a bit of a detour. Others on the grid...
These are some of the main wrong roots...
guilt ¨shoulds or shouldn´t¨ I really should have done this. I really shouldn´t have done that. And so forth. Guilt is a joy robber and is a counterfeit to walking the Spirit. Some people think a good message is one that convicts them. Unfortunately, there is a whole lot of conviction going on in a whole lot of churches but no empowerment to change. There must be change or else conviction can turn to condemnation. But anyways... so if Guilt is occurring one needs to deal with situation. What happened in the past stays in the past. If one needs to repent, they do it. If they need to ask for forgiveness of another, they do it. If changes need to occur in the future, they adjust and make them (i.e. I really should jog in the mornings. Evaluate it and see well I can´t do anything about the past so lets just figure out tomorrow. I think I´ll set my alarm clock earlier. Done.) But to allow a nebulous idea of ¨shoulds¨ to linger will only give a religious sounding counterfeit to the true freedom we have in Jesus Christ and being led by His Spirit.

Fear Fear often is the ¨what if monster¨. It says, ¨what if¨ this happens. Or ¨what if¨ that happens. The truth is that we can walk in peace (a fruit of the Holy Spirit´s filling not something I try manufacture) and take thoughts captive with thankfulness because we know His truth that He takes care of us and loves us.

Blame. Blame says ¨You Always...¨ or ¨You never...¨ and often cause distraction from one´s one spiritual formation because of the focus on another. If the other person is at fault, perhaps I need to reevaluate the boundaries that are between this person and myself so as to not allow the situation to persist. But to blame a person is inherently prideful because it makes me above doing what they did. The reality is that there is no sin that I am not capable of, because the fundamental roots to sin are all apart of my mode I revert to if God´s hand is not tightly on me. Perhaps this is another reason why saturation is so important with the Lord. All sorts of things, pride, worry, unforgiveness, lust, and on and on can crop up causing one to feel hopelessly overwhelmed of how to deal with it all. The reality is to not focus on the problems half as much as to focus on the solution. To further deepen and pursue the healer is much more important than fully understanding the disease.

Shame. Shame devalues oneself from the identity God gave us as a royal priesthood. Shame derives identity from sin rather than what the Lord says. There is no excuse for devaluing God´s masterpiece... either ourselves or others.

And on and on the list goes. Much of the grid is things to hold to and what to avoid. When the truth is held to when it does not feel like truth is when after a while it starts to line up with truth. Of course, most issues of life are not as cut and dry as only impacting one item on the grid. If one were to think, ¨ blank is good. God loves me so He wants me to have it.¨ The person is operating with one aspect of the grid but probably not fully realizing all of the ramifications. So it is wise to have a grid that completely holds to the truths of God´s Word but has enough flexibility that it could realize that it may not have a total picture of all truth involved in a given situation.

Please don´t make the mistake to think that I have everything figured out. I only was sharing what was on my grid. And do realize that unless the Holy Spirit shows me when I am walking in guilt or whatever I won´t realize it. I am so, so utterly dependent. He shows me the grid. He enables me to walk in it. He shows me when I am off track. He is my everything and I´m doomed without Him. This is why I write so many messages about being saturated in the Lord. Unless I stayed filled with the Holy Spirit, I have very, very little shot at a healthy life. There is a reason why Christians were meant to be worshipers in Spirit and in Truth. Wolfhart Pannenberg said that the more of God is in one´s life the more constancy and less rollercoasters there will be. This is so true because as one sets the mind on Christ and things above (Col. 3 1) they will be less impacted on the circumstances around them like Peter walking on the water. As they get swallowed up in the circumstances is when they start to sink. God, keep me focused on YOU!

Feel free to read this over more than once if it was a lot of info... or ask questions or whatever. God bless you guys and thanks for reading!

Excellent Music Video

2008-10-18T19:26:00.000-07:00

Regardless of whether you like this style of music, I really encourage you to watch this all the way through (I really love the ending). "Jesus" sure seems to look a bit like Dr. Mann.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQiP9svoFz0

Quotes

2008-09-22T23:46:00.000-07:00

They might not be exactly word for word...

"One of the biggest lies in Christiandom is that you only a sinner saved by grace. You are saints. You say that is semantics. I say that is a name [identity]. ...Every time you call yourself a piece of junk or say you are a no good sinner, you have cheapened the blood of Christ. You cheapen it to being just for forgiveness, and call it humility. He did more than just give forgiveness, He gave us a new nature." -Kris Vallotton

"Your success is going to be how full of God you become." - Kris

"Its nonsense to fill yourself with theory without experience to back it up." -Bill Johnson

"We can't sit back and say that if it is God's will, it will happen. That's like a farmer talking about having corn without planting." -Bill

"What you know can keep you from what you need to know if you are not a novice [having a child like heart]" -Bill

"If you don't change the part of the world you do have control of, don't expect God to do what you can't." -Kris

"If its in the Bible, its legal [to believe God for]." -Bill

"The world has two ways of dealing with strongly annointed people. They worship them or try to destroy them." -Bill

"God is looking for people that would not be destroyed by pride because of answered prayer." -Bill

Bill Johnson quote

2008-09-17T19:13:00.001-07:00

"He was demonstrating what could be possible for anyone who had no sin, and was completely empowered and directed by the Holy Spirit. You see if He did everything He did as God I’m still impressed but I’m not compelled to follow; I’m compelled to applaud. But when I find out that He did it as a man with the same restrictions that I have, and then He provides the blood to cleanse me from sin and the Spirit given to me without measure, I am completely dissatisfied with where I am at." - Bill Johnson

2008-08-27T00:09:00.000-07:00

I normally don't post on politics on here. But this is ridiculous. This is not an abortion issue even. If you have a live baby that is living outside of the womb (from a botched abortion) only Obama is fine with throwing it in the dumpster (and he voted this way THREE times). Not one other liberal senator from Kerry to Kenedy to Boxer are for this extreme type of legislation. I realize that there are other issues, but how can anyone vote for this man? Isn't this type of behavior enough to cause one to vote against him regardless of ANY of his other views? Can you really picture Jesus voting for someone who would vote in this way? If this doesn't concern you, what does?

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=VIdbYjmbFzo

I'll share with you another point of alarm. All one needs to do is do a search in regards to Obama's relationship to Odinga, his cousin. While some argue that the African culture calls friends cousins, it really does not matter if they are cousin's by blood. The reality is that Odinga's desire was to bring about radical Islamic law to Kenya, and Obama was a huge supporter of him. As one article states, "Clearly, Obama campaigned for someone who is corrupt, ruthless and has financial ties to terrorists. More importantly, Obama campaigned for a candidate who had the stated objective of dismantling US & Kenyan government efforts to root out Al Queda and other terrorist organizations. Organizations that had already caused the deaths of hundreds of Americans and Africans in embassy bombings. Senator Obama’s actions—intentional or not—were in direct conflict with the efforts and interests of US national security. I think this raises serious questions about the judgment, maturity and readiness of Senator Obama."
http://africanpress.wordpress.com/2008/08/10/senator-barack-obama-in-kenya-obama-and-odinga-the-true-story/

Please, please pray about this upcoming election!!

Good Preaching

2008-08-26T01:43:00.000-07:00

I heard Damon Thompson preach the other day, and man did I LOVE his message. I just wish he preached in Minnesota. Anyway I searched for any youtube clips of him and found this one. Enjoy! Note: he might be a bit blunt.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8HP1Vbd9P0

Inner Healing

2008-08-25T00:29:00.000-07:00

Well, this is a dangerous post. We’ll see if I get slaughtered. The odds are a lot higher when I’m picking into people’s wounds. At any rate, I’m only trying to help and am simply tossing out some ideas here in the wee hours of the morning. Feel free to tell me if/where you think I’m off or if you think I’m right on.
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Throughout life, one frequently seems to get hurt by those they come in contact with. Most of the time, for a lot of people, little things aren’t that big of a deal – a guy cuts us off in traffic and while we might be tempted to do something wrong in that instant, generally, the incident is forgotten before too long. However, there are other bigger hurts. When we get wounded, we can frequently put up a wall and think to ourselves how we will never allow that to occur to us again. And while it is true that we should have healthy boundaries in our relationships with others, it is also true that allowing that wall to come into our life can drain the life out of us, long after the situation or person is possibly a threat to us. In our desire to not get wounded again, through our response, we actually create an environment where the healing cannot get in. So we can cling to our wounds, sometimes even taking some sort of weird perverted joy in massaging and nurturing them all the while becoming more and more wounded by what was done to us. In the end, the “victim” seems to do more victimizing to themselves than the person that did the harm to them due to their response. And while it is true, what they did is wrong, the victim needs to understand that they are only aiding the one who did it to them by ganging up with them in afflicting themselves.

So how does healing occur? Well, it truly is a work of the Lord (though I must say deliverance from a spirit of resentment or bitterness is sometimes necessary, healing through relationship with others – James 5:16 - also can be, or grieving, etc.). One can’t really heal themselves. And while time can sometimes help, sometimes it just gives an appearance that the issue is dealt with when it is still under the surface. Then some poor unsuspecting person says something that catches the wound wrong, and what normally wouldn’t be a big deal causes the “victim” to lash out at this person. Or lash inward at themselves. Or both. It had nothing to do with the person doing something wrong; it had to do with a below-surface-wound getting irritated. In fact, I’d venture to say that frequently when we flip out over the things that aren’t that big of a deal, tend to be because of deeper wounds. Back to the Lord being our healer, here’s the thing about Him. He seems to care far more that we establish a close relationship with Him than that we are healed. To simply use God for what one can get out of Him, but remaining distant is kinda like someone visiting a prostitute. It is just using them. Typically, He doesn’t let people do this with Him. This is why the doctrine of obsession with legalism is so damaging. I hear Christians with nearly non-existent relationships with the Lord keep from getting close to Him because they don’t “have time” (as if any of us have time – it just depends on what we make time for) or don’t want to be “legalistic” about it all. The reality is that they claim to endorse having a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ as their closest friend, but through their actions they deny what they endorse. At best, they have a casual relationship or acquaintance – just enough to have an inoculation. They taste enough of the Lord to think they have it figured out, but the reality is that they can’t get their head knowledge down to their heart because the empowerment to live out what they believe only comes through ongoingly (don’t know if that’s a word) living filled with the Holy Spirit which isn’t going to happen when God is only a casual acquaintance. So people get disillusioned and give up. Their spiritual pride deludes them into thinking that they lived a "good" Christian life and if inner healing didn’t occur for them in their time frame, that it must not exist. But nothing could be further from the truth. They just simply approached God for healing from their perspective, rather than from His. And that’s what relationship does… it allows us to see another’s perspective.

Quotes

2008-08-15T23:28:00.000-07:00

"Ninety-five percent of today's church activities would continue if the Holy Spirit were removed from us. In the early Church, ninety-five percent of all her activities would have stopped if the Holy Spirit were removed." -Billy Graham

“It’s really quite amazing that the ones who see Heaven most clearly have little desire for this world, yet they are the ones who have the greatest impact on the world around them.” –Bill Johnson p.125 Dreaming With God

“Revelation is not poured out to make us smarter. Insight is a wonderful benefit of this encounter, but our intelligence is not God’s primary concern. His focus in revelation is our personal transformation. Revelation leads to a God encounter, and that encounter forever changes us… Without the encounter, revelation makes us proud. This was the nature of Paul’s warning to the church at Corinth: “Knowledge puffs up…” (1 Cor. 8:1). The actual effect on our intelligence is according to the measure of transformation we’ve experienced. Revelation come to enlarge the playing field of our faith. Insight without faith being released to have the truth realized through experience keeps truth unproven- only theory. It is the birthplace of religion. …Revelation gives us access to the realms of greater anointing available to us to make that truth a personal experience and lifestyle. The greater the truth, the greater the anointing needed to demonstrate that truth to the world. Anointing must be pursued, not assumed. The measure of anointing that we carry reveals the measure of revelation we actually live in. –Bill Johnson (italics are Bill's)

I love it!

2008-08-11T00:10:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JAMKh4pSF4&feature=related

I love the guitarist's take on it all!

Excellent Interview

2008-08-08T03:00:00.000-07:00

Watch this to the end. I love his response at the end about living in debt.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezLi99_hOYg&feature=related

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“In studying the Old Testament prophecies quoted in the New Testament, it doesn’t take long to realize that Jesus and other writers of Scripture took many Old Testament passages out of context to prove their point. The common thought today is that the Holy Spirit worked that way for the Scriptures to be written, but it is unacceptable to do this today because the canon is complete. How could it be wrong to use the same principles used to write the Scriptures to interpret the Scriptures? That rule is designed to keep us from creating doctrine by experience and contradicting orthodox Christianity. While the reason is noble, the rule is not biblical. It keeps us from some of the fruitfulness that has been assigned to the church of this hour.

...How is it possible to set a rule of Bible interpretation that the Holy Spirit Himself did not follow in inspiring the Bible? And to say that it is no longer allowed because the canon is complete has little merit as the Holy Spirit is with us, and He knows what He meant when He wrote it. This is potentially dangerous because of the bent of some toward creating unholy and/or inaccurate doctrine, but it does not justify removing a necessary tool of the Spirit that He uses to speak to His people. There is danger, but there is also great treasure. This is the necessary tension.” Bill Johnson 145-146 Dreaming With God

Without a doubt, I absolutely love Bill’s chapter the Holy Spirit and biblical interpretation. I only wish that I would have read this before I did a monster paper on biblical interpretation for school…

Quotes

2008-08-05T01:36:00.000-07:00

I've been reading a book called Enough is Enough by a guy I met named Dave Carlson. It is a very interesting book. Anyway, here are some quotes from it...

"Many books have been written on overcoming fear and pride, removing offense, bitterness, and unforgiveness in the Christian life. Sometimes we become so involved with “working” to be set free from different curses and a hardness of heart that we fail to see that what is right in front of our face: How can Christians hold in their hearts any bitternss or offense toward another when their hearts and souls are filled with the love and compassion of Jesus Christ? They cannot! …We are not abiding in His divine presence. We desire for God’s glory and power to be manifested in our lives, but we contingue to ignore Him throughout the day. We find ourselves so caught up in this world that we neglect the Father who adores us beyond understanding. We are told to count it all joy when we fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of our faith produces patience (James 1:2-3). When we place our faith and trust in the love of the Father, we find a place of rest where we can abide in peace and joy." (p. 91)

“We are called to produce good fruit for the Kingdom of God, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The ability to produce quality fruit hinges upon our ability to find a sustained level of consciousness of Jesus in our lives. The moment we realize the truth of the power of Christ, our spirits, souls, and bodies enter into a place of rest where doubt and fear cannot exist. It is then that the fruit of the Holy Spirit is released to grow abundantly. Holiness becomes a life-centered desperation for the Father’s touch.” (p. 83)

“A pastor once said that the anointing experienced on ministry trips in other countries is no greater than the anointing found here in the United States. The only difference is that the manifested glory of God is in the measure of desperation from the people being ministered to. Our desperation and hunger for the promises of the Kingdom of Heaven enable us to pull into our existence and experience the glory and power of the Holy Spirit… Blessed are the poor in spirit, Jesus was saying for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. He explained that those who received an outpouring of God’s glory and power were the desolate, the desperate, those poor in spirit and hungry for a touch of God. It was through their broken spirit that the Kingdom of Heaven was released into manifestation in the physical realm.” (p. 81)

“The process of establishing holiness in our souls and bodies is about “getting” the truth of the Holy Scriptures into the depths of our consciousness that we may begin to live out the promise of the New Covenant. Holiness is not what we do, but who we are. Holiness is no longer about the law; it’s about the treasures of our hearts. No longer are we a part of this world. Holiness is a rest in the truth of the Word of God and a trusting in God to be faithful to His promise. Holiness brings a person closer to the heart of God and allows man to experience the Father’s glorious presence. All our thoughts, perceptions, and focus must be on the Kingdom of Heaven and all that it provides. Holiness is about getting our focus off this world and anchoring it securely, and permanently, onto God.” (p. 72)

“The irony of Christianity and the fulfillment of the desire of our hearts lies in our ability to completely surrender to the Father’s will. We prosper when we come to the complete understanding that it is not us who prospers, but He who has empowered us to prosper.” (p. 41)

Well said, Bill!

2008-08-03T15:29:00.000-07:00

"Israel was called upon to manifest the reign of God in their departure from Egypt and their entrance into the Promised Land. Normally this journey should have only lasted a couple of weeks at most, yet it took Israel 40 years. They wandered through the wilderness for 40 years. IN reality, they were only doing on the outside what they were experiencing on the inside. “Therefore I was angry with this generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their hearts, and they did not know my ways’; as I swore in my wrath, ‘they shall not enter my rest’” (Heb. 3:10-11 NASB). The phrase go astray means “to wander.” They wandered in their hearts first. What was going on inside of them defined and shaped the world around them. In other words, their internal realities became their external realities. The lesson is simple: What is going on inside of us affects what goes on around us. This principle affects health, relationships, success in our occupation, and our gifts and ministries. All things flow from the heart. Solomon realized this and taught: Watch over the heart with all diligence, for from it flows the issues of life (Proverbs 4:23)." - Bill Johnson

Fasting

2008-07-30T03:29:00.000-07:00

By virtue of the internship I have, it would be very hard for me not to be awakened to the power that God gives through fasting and prayer. I help a man out who seems to rarely ever go more than ten minutes without mentioning his passion - fasting. He loves to point out how Jesus' miracles occurred after he did the forty day fast, not before and how Jesus finished his fast full of the Holy Spirit's power (Luke 4:14). When I hear testimony after testimony that just thoroughly dismantle every box that I had put God in, I realized that what I thought was devotion to the Lord would be considered backsliding to those who have a much better grasp of devotion.

I thought of an analogy to the old James Bond N-64 game. If, from a ministry standpoint, having a 20 minute quiet time is like carrying a PP-7, having a day of complete devotion to the Lord in prayer and fast is like having a grenade launcher. It isn't that the PP-7 is so bad, (it a lot better than not having a weapon or not having time with the Lord), its that the amount that the Lord's fruit, presence, and power can flow through us on a fast is so much greater.

I think some people tend to try to appeal that God's will will occur when we pray so we don't have to do anything. If this is so, then why does the man I'm interning with have God's will answer prayer thousands of times more than people who rarely pick up a Bible? Why does God's love and His passion for the Lord seem so contagious while other Christians are thinking the odds that God doesn't exist is high because they are so disillusioned due to lack of answers to prayer in their own life?

The sad thing is that people seem so defensive. The one thing you better not tell someone to do is to be more devoted to the Lord or tell them there is something wrong in their walk. They'll probably accuse you of being legalistic or something. They can be completely miserable, but don't tell them there is something wrong in how they are approaching God. I see so many that are "so busy" that they can't spend more than 20 minutes with God in a day, but waste volumes of time through pointless conversations, excessive amounts of movies, television, video games, etc. Just from a question of common sense - if the tv one watches promotes lust, pride, unforgiveness, and the like and comes in a dose of more than two hours a day, but the Bible comes in less than 30 minutes a day, do you really think that person is going to have God's fruit rather than the world's fruit flowing out of them? I mean, come on, this isn't exactly rocket science here.

I am continually blown away at the devotion of some of the greats of the faith. I ask some of them on my own how much their devotion level is to Jesus in the form of prayer and fasting. These people would never come forward and say how much occurs because they are too modest. But when pressed they open up. They might not want me to share what I got out of them, but I will anyways. When I asked Mark Strandjord, he said that when he does revival meetings he typically does a ten day fast with his wife first. But, he says, "I don't really have an annointing for fasting like she does. She does a 40 day fast every year." Mark was actually in a wheelchair from incredible pain due to Arthritis for 8 years. His wife did multiple forty day fasts until he saw his healing.

I cornered Paul Betiku and asked him how much he fasts and he modestly answered that, "I just want people to get their answer to prayer. If I pray and they are not healed, I know that if I fast for a couple of days, they probably will get healed if we pray again." But then I pressed him, how many days in the average month does he fast. He said, "fourteen, or a little more."

I was blessed with the opportunity to see Mike Francen preach a while back. This man has a life goal of a hundred million salvations through his healing crusades and a thousand church plants a year (in addition to other incredible goals). He told that when he became a Christian he spent 10-12 hours a day in the Word of God and then when he started to do healing crusades would fast for the duration of the crusade. A 7 day crusade received a seven day fast. He was doing so many that he dropped all the way down to 155 pounds (and was 6 foot 4). So he did say he went too far, but there is something to be said for his dedication.

I asked Doug Stanton. He simply replied that he lived a fasted lifestyle.

Todd Bentley talks about how he spent 8 hours with the Lord for a ten minute sermon then, upon finishing, would go immediately back to the Lord.

I started reading some of A.A. Allen's book online. He talks about the cost for God's Spirit to flow through someone. He would spend time in his prayer closet and would not know if hours or days had past. (Unfortunatly, he had some major problems at the end of his life).

I watched one of the evangelists from the Florida Healing Outpouring. He tells how from 4 am to 9 - the first five hours are devoted to the Lord every day.

I met a guy who sees all sorts of healings. I asked him about it and he told about spending the first six hours every day in the Bible.

This business of being so heavenly minded that one is no earthly good is one of the most ridiculous lies the church has seen. It also is blatantly against the Bible. Col. 3:1 tells us to set our minds on things above and not on earthly things. It is those that are heavenly minded that actually ARE earthly good, not just coasting through life.

As I started to see what true hunger and devotion to the Lord looks like I started to realize that what I thought was devotion wasn't. I prayed to the Lord and asked why the cost is so great to have the Lord's power flow through an individual. What I felt like he showed me was that the cost was extremely great for His Son to give up so that this could even be a possibility for a believer. He wouldn't want His people to take it lightly. Besides it is the glory of God to conceal a matter but the glory of kings to search a matter out. Far from the microwave, instant gratification culture we live in and many in the American church seem all to often to want God to endorse, God's ways involve perseverance, steadfastness, surrender, and dedication.

There is a tendency as Christians to call people who are truly being used by God fake because they have not seen God work in those ways in their own lives. Unfortunately, many do not see what these people's relationship with the Lord looks like behind the scenes and the sacrifices they make so that others could see some form of miraculous breakthrough and/or salvation. These people should be commended for their devotion, not slandered by other Christians. It is sad that so many Christians seem so quick to shoot at their own soldiers.

God, make me a man who is truly devoted!

I love this song

2008-07-24T01:16:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wr_Oqun3CWo&feature=related

I think I've had it on repeat for the last hour or so now... It is kinda like an Upton song where you hear it once or twice and think its ok, but after listening to it quite a few more times the presence of the Lord just gets stronger and stronger...

quotes

2008-07-21T00:50:00.001-07:00

Over the last couple of years, when I hear a good and/or challenging quote or even one that just makes me think, I put it in the back of my Bible. I was reading through them the other night and here were some that stood out to me...

"Unless a humility that rests in nothing less than the end and death of self and which gives up all the honor of men as Jesus did to seek the honor that comes from God alone, that God may be exalted, until humility is what we seek in Christ above our chief joy, and welcome at any price; there is little hope of a faith that will conquer the world." -Andrew Murray

"As soon as [any] honor or service is done for the honor and not for the service-sake, the doer is that moment outside of the kingdom." -George MacDonald (as quoted by John Eldredge)

“Religious people can be the hardest to reach because they are dead and think they are alive because of what they know.” –Dave Johnson

“God is looking for people who are wandering and stumbling into His plan, not asking Him to empower their plan.” –Doug Stanton

“I think we only finally start to learn something when you figure out you don’t know and you get smart enough to listen to everybody else and anybody else who has got any wisdom.” -Joyce Meyer

“Everyone is as close to God as they want to be.” -Tozer

“God didn’t kill His Son for you to have a part time interest in Christianity.” -Doug Stanton

“When I don’t need to be used, but only want the Lord’s hand to move through anyone, is when I’m ready to be used.” (me - now, if only I could always apply that...)

“God’s work is always much bigger than what we plan to do for Him.”

“If you are not ready to share your testimony, than you are not free.” –Doug Stanton

“I think God will cause something cataclysmic to happen in our lives. [Otherwise,] We’ll just continue on in that same misery. God allows things to happen there… We think, ‘You know what, I do not have to live here. I am miserable here.’ And I have a God echoing down into that pit, ‘Come and be free. You can be free.’” –Beth Moore

“Am I multiplying my talents for me or God?” –Rodney Howard-Browne

“The Bible says draw near to God and He will draw near to you so the onus in on us.” –Rodney Howard-Browne

“Your eternal job is not what you do, but who you are; Your earthly job is not what you do, its who you are. But because of what you are called to do, you’ll become who you are meant to be. And when you get that, it takes the pressure off you; but not the pressure of believing God to do it through you. If the pressure of doing something is hard, then its probably not God doing it through you. If it is no longer you who do it, there will probably be no burden.” –Doug Stanton

“A wise person is one that is broken that they can receive correction.” –Doug Stanton

“All that hinders the blessing being ours is pride or lack of faith. …Jesus reveals to us that it is indeed pride that makes faith impossible: ‘How can you believe if you accept prise from one another?’ [John 5:44] …In their very nature, pride and faith are irreconcilably at odds.” –Andrew Murray

“The chief mark of counterfeit holiness is its lack of humility. Every seeker after holiness needs to be on his guard lest unconsciously what was begun in the Spirit is perfected in the flesh, and pride creep in where its presence is least expected.” –Andrew Murray

“It’s God that does it, not you. So its not like somehow you are going to get faith so that you are going to heal people. Your just going to get to a place where your unbelief and doctrine doesn’t stop what God wants to do through you. That’s about all there is to it.” -Doug Stanton

How To Make Christianity Work - A Paradigm Shift

2008-07-15T01:14:00.000-07:00

"Jesus did not come to be a model. He came to be our life." -William P. Young

A common idea occurring in Christianity today is that I need to work harder and try harder to reach Jesus' standards. Just be a little more determined. Reading the Bible becomes an exercise in discovering what things I am not measuring up to today and see what things I just need to buckle down and work more at. The problem should be obvious. The measurement is Christ. I am not perfect. And therefore I can never reach His ways on my own.

I'm convinced that this is an unbiblical humanistic idea of Christianity. And it doesn't work. I've never seen it work. And the legalism people strap to it, doesn't make it work. It can't change heart issues.

Gal. 3:3 asks why anyone would try to do through human effort what can only be done through the Spirit.

I'm convinced the Christian life is much more parasitic (the good works only come from us leaching them from the Lord). As we abide in Christ and receive from Him, THEN we bear fruit (John 15). It is through Him that it occurs, not through me.

Let's look at the idea of love, for example. 1 Corinthians 13 defines love as not being proud, rude, self-seeking, but being patient, kind, and many more things. To even try to do one in my strength in a day is going to be virtually impossible, much less the whole list. But yet I'm doomed because the beginning of the chapter says that if I don't walk in love, it doesn't really matter what incredible things are occuring in my life because they mean nothing. However, everything changes when we see that what 1 Cor. 13 is describing is not human love. It is GOD'S love. It is a perfect definition of God's love. But how can I have God's love in me? It seems impossible to get by simply willpower and determination.

1 John 2:15-16 says, "Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world." It appears from verse 15 that if God's love isn't in a person if they love the world that God's love CAN be in a person if that isn't the case. So it IS possible to have 1 Cor. 13 love in me. However, the Lord is pretty good about defining what loving the world is (since people have twisted it to include pretty much everything under the sun). It's sinful cravings, pride, and lust. So God's love is opposed to those things. So if I think I can walk in pride and God's love at the same time, I'm kidding myself. And if I walk in pride BECAUSE I was walking in God's love, it disappears (seems like a catch-22). Like virtually everything good in the Christian walk, I am only indirectly able to make it appear in my life. I can stop it from occurring by my actions, but ultimately only God can cause those things to flow through me. Which is crucial because if I could directly make those things occur, I would grow prideful which would cause them to cease! Hopefully, that makes sense...

I kinda think of pride, lust, and sinful cravings as like little trinkets or fool's gold. They feel fun and are enjoyable for a little bit. But ultimately the happiness wears off and one needs a new trinket or something else to lust after or be prideful about or whatever in order to satisfy (i.e. only partially because there is no true lasting contentment here). However, those things rob from the true Mother Lode - the love of the Father. It is only as one experiences and dwells in that love that they freely give it. Think for a moment of when you saw The Passion of the Christ or were in another way deeply touched by the Father's love. I'm guessing no one had to tell you not to walk in lust or pride afterwards. And you couldn't help but want to pass along the love you experienced from the Lord through the movie to someone else. You received His love and you past it along. And it was a pure love - no strings attached. You weren't trying to get something from that person just as the Lord wasn't trying to get something out of you. But yet you couldn't help but pass it along. This is the type of relationship with the Lord that we are called to. The depth of encounter of knowing the love of the Lord like this need not be an isolated occurrence, but rather a way of living life such that God is flowing into and through us to impact those that are around us. When one realizes that the focus of the Christian walk is not in the performance and determination of trying to measure up but is in saturation in relationship with the God who loves us is when Christianity does not burn us out, but becomes incredibly fun because of the joy of living in His presence and the fun of watching Him do stuff through us that we could never have hoped to do on our own! In fact, I think a frequent marker of God showing up is to think, "wow, that was good, I wish I would have come up with that (when the rest of the world thinks it was us, but we know that what occured was far better than what we could do)!"

I think a lot of life is just to bring some brokenness into our lives so that some desperation can come which can break some pride so that we won't think we got it all figured out and can do everything on our own so that we are ready to truly turn to God and cling to Him and walk after Him and learn to receive from Him. It seems there is no shortage of brokenness in this world. And there is no shortage of people who want deliverance. But what they seem to not get is that God delivers people not only FROM something but TO someONE. The casual Christianity no longer cuts it anymore, because that isn't the way God intended us. The pride, lust, and sinful cravings can't stay around anymore because God's love doesn't inhabit with that stuff. But yet people aren't truly wanting to be delivered from that stuff. They like the fool's gold. And so they are slowly dying internally because their desperation to live for something more than the emptyness of this world has not prompted real change. Oh, people make little changes and tweaks in their mind. Ha, perhaps YOU might be even making them now thinking that maybe this or that little change might make a difference. But lets face it. I'm pretty sure most people I know don't need just a little tweaking. I know I need an overhaul every single day. An overhaul called the Father's love, abiding in Christ, soaking in His presence, walking in the Spirit, and complete obedience (this includes what I own, what I do, and so forth as much as I am able). Christianity is no longer about justifying and rationalizing what "isn't that big of a deal" or using others as my litmus test of what is acceptable - even if they are Christians - instead of the Bible. Because it is only those who hunger and thirst for righteousness that will be filled (Matt. 5). And it is when we are filled and content that we no longer hunger after lust, pride, and sinful cravings.

Wow, I didn't realize when I started this would turn into something so long. If you read this to the end, though, and it makes sense to you, I don't think you will be disappointed. Hopefully, I didn't over advertise on my title.

You know what's funny? As I finished this, I watched Brian Welch (formerly in Korn) in an interview and was like, dude, he's talking about what I am (at the end).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHHu8-2ZmqI

2 Things

2008-07-14T23:27:00.000-07:00

I read this book lately called The Shack which I need to recommend. It is truly a fabulous book. Now, just because I recommend it does not mean that I completely agree with EVERYTHING said in it. However, that being the case it is a wonderful book. Here is a link to an interview of the author.
http://www.lifetoday.org/site/PageServer?pagename=tel_USCalendar_Jul08
Scroll down to July 14 and July 15th. If you read this today it might not be updated yet, but it is on the home page www.lifetoday.org

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Here's a good quote I found on interpreting the Bible
"I began learning to recognize God's voice through the study of Scripture. During one season of my life I spent considerable time in the Book of Ephesians. When I read, 'and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God' (Eph. 3:19), the Holy Spirit spoke to me. He told me that it meant that I could know by experience what would be beyond the reach of comprehension. Later I was able to do a word study and found that this was exactly the meaning of the verse in the original language.
Often I would come to the Bible with a need and God would address it clearly from His Word, again and again. There were times when He spoke so clearly from a verse, yet I knew that what was ministering to me wasn't what the writer originally intended. But it was a living word, a sword, ministering to the very need of my heart. It wasn't until years later that I learned that God didn't speak that way anymore.
I'm thankful I learned to hear God through the Scriptures before I found out what the rules were. It's like being told there are no miracles today. That laughable statement might have gotten my attention years ago, but it's way too late now. I've seen thousands." -Bill Johnson Dreaming With God p. 141-142 (all italics Bill's)

Power of God

2008-06-25T01:41:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJt71ebwh-w&feature=related

I sure enjoyed it.

Paradigm shift for prayer

2008-06-20T01:34:00.000-07:00

So I find that I have to watch out about obsessing about the same thing to God in prayer. A while back, it was my future. I do not even want to guess how many hours in the past 6 months I spent praying... but really almost obsessing would be a better word... about my future. I would venture to say it became a distraction. I'm fervently seeking the Lord, but am distracted from fully tapping into His presence because I'm so busy fuming due to my lack of trust. Yeah, I tell myself the truth that God will take care of it. I remind myself of all of the times He has in the past. And yet I still spent entirely too much of my prayer time distracted. I know there is a place in prayer of relating to get things off of our minds but what I am talking about is much more than this.

So then I watched The Glory Zone on GOD TV. It is a show with wild testimonies of miracles that God does when His glory is manifest. David Herzog, the Host, talked about how he started each day by spending hours in worship, praise, singing, dance, even shouting praises, etc. until the glory and presence of God was thick in the place of worship. Then he'd soak in the presence of the Lord for a while and THEN make his requests to God. He talked about how the answers to prayer seemed to come much quicker in the glory. So I had a day where I didn't have anything to do and just started with the presupposition that God already knew about the things that I'm always praying about and instead just focused on Him. After soaking in His presence (which was incredible in and of itself), I then started praying. WOW. All I can say is that Herzog knows what He's talking about. I guess it should come as no surprise that God answers prayer so much quicker when we pray from His perspective and when His manifest presence is actually there. I guess this is why at the Florida Revival they spend three hours just in worship and intercession to press in deep to the presence of the Lord before they start to pray for people. It isn't that the needs aren't there. However, if the needs are going to get met by the Lord, shouldn't His manifest presence be there if the answers are going to occur??

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Oh, and I just was watching an old Disciple song on youtube. I love it. If you like music to be a bit harder, enjoy! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtOV8Sd0KOg

Quotes

2008-06-14T23:09:00.000-07:00

"We are the ones who have distanced ourselves from God and then we've blamed him for the distance." - Jason Upton

"Any area of a person's life that is not under the influence of hope is under the influence of a lie. Hope is the atmosphere in which faith grows." - Bill Johnson

"The passion-driven worshiper will always accomplish more than the purpose-driven worker. The first is motivated through friendship and intimacy, the second through fear and responsibility. The Ephesian church was filled with those who persevered and toiled but left their first love. Paul, on the other hand, commends those in Thessalonica for their labor of love." -David Ravenhill

"Several paradigm shifts take place in our hearts as we embrace this promotion [from servant to friend in our relationship to God - see John 15]. First, what we know changes, as we gain access to the heart of the Father. His heart is the greatest resource of information we need to function successfully in all of life. Jesus paid the price of our access to the Father, thereby granting us the freedom that comes from the truth we gain through that unlimited knowledge of His heart. Liberty is found in this phase of the promotion.

Second, our experience changes. Encounters with God as an intimate are quite different from those of a servant. His heart beat becomes our heartbeat as we celebrate the shift in our own desires. The realm of His presence becomes our greatest inheritance, and divine encounters our greatest memories. Personal transformation is the only possible result from these supernatural experiences.

Third, our function in life radically changes. Instead of working for Him, we work with Him. WE work not for His favor but from His favor. In this position He entrust us with more of His power, and we are naturally changed into His likeness more and more.

Fourth, our identity is radically transformed. Our identity sets the tone for all we do and become. Christians who live out of who they really are cannot be crippled by the opinions of others. They don't work to fit into other people's expectations, but burn with the realization of who the Father says they are." -Bill Johnson Dreaming With God p. 25

Once saved, always saved??

2008-06-10T00:40:00.000-07:00

So I am kinda wrestling with this issue. I grew up Baptist and had told to me and personally endorsed the idea that simply praying the sinner's prayer once was all that was necessary for eternal life in heaven. It didn't matter if one completely turned away from the Lord. My youth pastor argued that there is nothing that I could do that is greater than what God can do.

But it is interesting. I am interning at this African church and the Sunday School teacher argued that one of the main downfalls (errors) of the American church that causes such problems is the idea of "once saved, always saved." The pastor's wife recently came to the place that she doesn't think that a man would lose his salvation for having long hair provided that was the only thing wrong with his life (I guess I took the 1 Cor. verse on long hair being a disgrace to a man as being written to that culture for that time period, not a universal mandate- which they took it as - but that's besides the point). My point is that the level of devotion I see in the African church and the emphasis on holiness in the African church is not even in the ballpark to what I see in the American church. Of course, the idea of burning in hell for any little thing would probably prompt more than the complacency that seems to abound in much of the American church.

So what does constitute salvation? I hear so many different things in different evangelism methods (many that I have used). Is it simply belief (Acts 16:31)? Does baptism play a part (Acts 3:22 if I remember right?)? Is it simply calling on Jesus such that all one has to do is say Jesus as a cuss word and because they called on the name of the Lord they are saved (Rom. 10:13 - yep, I actually heard evangelists endorse this)? Is repentance a fundemental aspect of salvation? Can one be saved without repentance? Or without surrender? And is this an ongoing surrender? Or just a one time shot and then one can feel free to take back control? Is one saved only while they are living in conscious surrender but as they walk back in control facing damnation? My goodness, the Good Lord must spend a LOT of time writing and erasing names if this is true... I don't know that I have an answer that I like. I DO have a hard time seeing that salvation can occur without repentance (and that would include every area of life and not just picking and choosing - which is what we Americans seem to like to do - esp. with "small things" that "aren't that big of a deal" - at least to us, maybe not God. I know that the disciples asked and Jesus implied that not many would be saved. It seems right now in America virtually everyone over the age of 30 that isn't a recent immigrant has said a sinner's prayer before regardless of what their life looks like now. So why do any evangelism that simply consists of having people making a decision for Christ when they probably have already done this? And if the Africans are right (and don't let your idea of American pride think that we know more than them on this, because I think they know FAR, FAR more about devotion and walking with the Lord than the average American. Also, if signs and wonders authenticate the true Gospel, then the amount that the Africans see in comparison to the Americans should cause one to defaultly choose the Africans as being more in tune to the Lord than the Americans) than perhaps the Americans need to figure out how to save the church from the pastors (the majority, statistics say, are addicted to pornography) on down.

Yeah, I know all of the debates on Calvinism and Arminianism. This isn't really meant to be a theological argument. I guess my goal in writing this is that one should feel just a touch less confident on the opinion they hold to and allow a healthy fear of the Lord and hatred towards sin to sink in. We WILL stand before Him one day to give an account... Perhaps this might be why salvation gets worked out with fear and trembling.

I responded to the Sunday School teacher that I thought the major lie that holds the church captive is that holiness or devotion or obedience is called legalism. True, there is legalism. And it is very ugly. But in the backlash that ensued, EVERYTHING is fair game in the name of not being legalistic. For example, I can watch anything on tv, because, after all, I don't want to be legalistic. I don't need to go to church regularly because I don't want to be legalistic about it. I don't need to pick up my Bible except when I really, really want to because I don't want to be legalistic. I can have any perverted, crass thing come out of my mouth because I don't want to be legalistic. And so on... I could give a verse for each one of those (and if you want I will) of why each of those things is wrong. But it doesn't matter. Americans like to make up their own rules and then call someone else legalistic if there is any challenge to holliness. And so we live in an empty, unsatisfied culture because righteousness has been all but been eliminated in the desire to build big "seeker-sensitive" churches. Because it is only those who hunger and thirst for righteousness that will be filled. And so people come empty to church and leave empty because they got what they wanted... but not what they needed.

Wow, well I guess I rambled for a bit. I started salvation and then moved off topic. Oh well. And I am VERY HEAVILY stereotyping, and have not been to very many African churches... Anyway, God bless you guys (whoever reads this).

Upton and the Lord

2008-05-26T00:33:00.000-07:00

From the article at http://charismamag.com/articles/index.php?id=16896
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In the late 1990s, while he and his wife, Rachel, were pursuing their Master of Divinity degrees at Regent University, he says God spoke to him one day at his piano: "'When are you going to start living for Me, Jason?'"

"I gave the Lord my whole list [of religious accomplishments]," Upton says. "My whole life I never did drugs, never had sex before marriage. I always went to church."

He says God told him that some unsaved people have done that: "'That was all for you, Jason. When will you start living for Me?'"

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It is a really good article. A friend showed it to me, and like everything Upton does, I was impressed by the article.

Watch the Revival

2008-05-21T01:29:00.000-07:00

"Even though I have said it many times, I can still truly say that the Lords presence has been overwhelming as we cry out in extended times of worship before the throne of our King. It has been very difficult to get off the floor during these times of worship and the miracles are outstanding. In just five days, we heard testimonies from more than 32 individuals that got out of wheelchairs! Tumors and deaf ears are healed nightly. Sometimes there are hundreds in line to give their testimony. The crowds continue to grow as guests come from all over the world. We expect 20,000 people to attend the meetings this weekend alone. God continues to pour out his glory in an awesome way." -Todd Bentley - www.freshfire.ca

From the Florida revival. Here's a good message on healing. http://www.freshfire.ca/ffmstream/index.php At the end of the hour it is really sweet to see the process of numerous deaf ears being opened. This page might get changed to tomorrow's message tomorrow, though, but I'm sure that message will be good too.

Revival!!

2008-05-04T22:52:00.000-07:00

"I remember when I first started preaching, I would spend 8 hours in prayer to preach for ten minutes and then would immediatly go back into the glory [prayer]" - Todd Bentley

Is there any wonder that the Lord is using Todd Bentley to bring revival to central Florida? Do keep Lakeland and the Florida Healing Revival in your prayers. Also, we are believing that revival is going to be coming to Minnesota, get involved with dsmi.org. The revival meetings have seen people healed of virtually every ailment under the sun. Do get involved. I'm pretty sure what is happening in Florida can happen in Minnesota. Just because elements of the meetings might be outside your box, might only indicate that your box needs to be broken!!

2008-04-19T23:06:00.001-07:00

http://forum.disciplerocks.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=17958

A cool article from ESPN, the magazine, that was posted online on Jon Kitna.

Shadows

2008-04-16T00:24:00.000-07:00

I think that more and more aspects of the Christian life dealing with sin are not what they might seem... A couple of weeks ago, I got hit with a strong fear towards something (I won't get into it). I tried to take authority over a spirit of fear, surrender the fear to the Lord, thank the Lord for how he was taking care of the fear and freeing me from it, and virtually everything I knew to do. And yet, it seemed like I wasn't really shaking it. I couldn't figure it out. And then the Lord brought to mind a seemingly irrelevant situation... it certainly did not seem to apply to the fear issue where I had walked in disobedience to authority. As soon as I repented and determined to go to the authority, the fear just disappeared.

Some times the issues that we think are issues are not the real issues. For example, one can be attacked by lust, but what allowed that lust access to them was walking in spiritual pride and judging others. If they were to spend their life fighting lust they would not realize that the reason why they are dealing with it is that they are outside God's umbrella of protection by virtue of the pride that they are allowing in their life. It is important to see that sometimes the issues that one thinks are the real issues are only shadows of other issues. Sometimes one can look at a situation in their life and not think they have any hope of changing that bondage. And while this may be true (only God can change that in them), the situations of disobedience that they allow to persist in their life keep what the person thinks is the big issue still in tact. It is as one deals with the first issues that the Lord reveals (or rather allows Him to deal with, in, and through us on these issues) that the first step toward healing a completely different issue often can occur. I think a lot of times Christians view their walk based on one or two issues. Consequently, they fail to see the host of "smaller" sins that keep those two issues seemingly permanently untouchable to any real, lasting change. God is waiting for us to take the steps we know to do that will make our lives submit with His Word.

Faith or Zeal

2008-04-13T23:57:00.000-07:00

I found this interesting. It isn't very long.

Mountain troubleshooting

2008-04-09T00:11:00.000-07:00

I saw a note about wanting to live on the mountain of spiritual high with the Lord. How does one get pulled off of it? These are things that have pulled me off before... Thankfully, the Lord wants us on the mountaintop even more than we want to be. However, He has ways that He acts and He will not change the way that He acts to get us on the mountain. For example, if having pride in my life makes me opposed to God (James 4, 1 Peter 5), one should not expect to spent much time on the mountain if they are living in pride.

#1 We move away from God. When on the mountain the level of abiding was incredibly deep with massive amounts of time in his presence - whether through prayer, annointed preaching, the Word, worship, etc. When the root structure is not as deep, the external fruit will not be as nice. This only is compounded by a group setting where all participate to see the Lord do massive amounts of fruit through all of them together.

#2 Spiritual pride can slip in. What can start with amazement at how God is working in and through us can slip into spiritual pride where we think it was due to some form of goodness in us that caused God to move in the way that He did. Ah, but in the times of closeness on the mountain we realize that we can't make God work. Only He does it.

#3 Little sins can slip in. It can start so small and innocently. Just a little judgementalism of others that are not walking as I am walking, and not taking that thought captive. Just a little division between brothers. A little grumbling over others. And so forth. The enemy still tries to throw lies at us when we are on the mountain and if those thoughts are not taken captive they can blow us off course before too long if we are not careful and make us wonder where Jesus went. I have heard Joyce Meyer define spiritual maturity as that it takes less and less for us to note God's distance rather than all of life falling apart.

#4 We coast. It is so fun to see God work that we figure we can just kinda coast on yesterday's annointing. Consequently, seeing God work becomes what one is after rather than walking in love which is what prompted God's work from the beginning. A desire for signs and wonders does not produce them. Going deeper and deeper into Christ which produces faith operating through love can open the door for the Lord to do those things through His children. If one is coasting in their life and not fully soaking in the Lord's love, it is difficult to extend love that we have not received first.

#5 Idolatry can set in. In the midst of being on the mountain, one can start to put an aspect of God's ministry or the mountaintop ahead of God Himself. The thrill of being in God's presence can be elevated over God Himself. Or perhaps ministry gets elevated over God. At any rate, God tends to distance Himself when I walk in idolatry.

#6 God distances Himself to test us. Is He really our Lord? Are we still committed to Him even if we don't live with goosebumps all the time? If He holds back for a bit, will we seek Him wholeheartedly? Or were we just seeking Him when it was easy to?

#7 We cease to walk in love. The end of 1 John 4 and the beginning of 1 John 5 are clear. The way one knows if they love God is if they obey Him and love others. The way one knows that they love others is that they love God. One cannot love the Lord more than the person or authority they hate the most. If one is not walking in love (esp. if they are walking in rebellion or unforgiveness) towards all as the Lord enables them, they should expect to feel like the heavens are like brass. We are called to walk in love more than anything else, and it matters very little what occurs on the mountaintop - since, if there is not love, it does not matter (1 Cor. 13). Thankfully, the Lord is generally good about giving us plenty of difficult people to love and plenty of opportunities to walk in forgiveness and to walk in submission to rules that we hate, to test to see if we are doing these things as unto Him rather than for our own sake.

#8 We cease to relate with the Lord. There are different aspects to prayer. The more I get in through corporate time in prayer, the more I need in alone time with Him. I find the corporate can often start to fizzle if the alone is not also there. That, or it can get perverted where I only seek a thrill or this or that. I need to be able to relate to Jesus about all of life and there is a place for solo time in prayer relating to Jesus in prayer, esp. when everything is occurring on the mountain.

#9 We derive a false spiritual identity based off of the mountaintop or things occurring on the mountaintop through us. We believe that we are the things that God does through us. We are teachers, preachers, counselors, prophets, healers, evangelists, intercessors, spiritual leaders, etc. As a result of this, "God's" ministry has to continue because our identity is on the line. We can't let it fail. It no longer is about God, it is about us. But God only wants us to derive our identity from what He says about us alone. When we see ourselves as we are, not as what He does through us, it opens Him up to use in greater way. When it runs the other way, he will let us see that our identity can only be on Him.

#10 He is purifying our motives. Sometimes He distances Himself because our motives are no longer about Him and walking in love towards others. So even though we may be doing the right things, we distance ourselves from Him due to our wrong motives.

#11 We cease to walk in thanksgiving. Psalm 100 records that we "enter His gates with thanksgiving, and His courts with praise." Sometimes all one needs is to start thanking the Lord for all He has done and then the joy of the Lord and His presence is back again.

#12 Our life becomes about spiritual striving rather than resting in the Lord. What started with the Spirit, we now try to accomplish through human effort (Gal. 3:3). This can be linked first to spiritual pride and lack of thankfulness since it tries to produce in our flesh what can only be accomplished in the Spirit. As a result the Lord would not let us succeed in the flesh as it would probably just make us religious, spiritually proud, etc.

Article Quote

2008-03-16T23:44:00.000-07:00

The greatest building has yet to be erected. The greatest invention yet to be patented. The greatest song has yet to be composed, the greatest book yet to be written. The most profound thought has yet to be perceived, the most amazing theory yet to be proven. The most beautiful poem has yet to be penned, the most powerful sermon yet to be preached. The largest church has yet to be known. The grandest victory has yet to be realized. The greatest wealth has yet to be accumulated. The largest offering yet to be given. The greatest day has yet to dawn.
The grand illusion has been painted. Scores have purchased anothers idea of success. What is the 'grand illusion'? - "Its all been done, we have it all, it's not possible." Mediocrity, passivity, status quo, and average stand and curse the limitless potential and destiny of those who would dare to soar.

Some say: 'Take it easy'. I say: 'Take a chance'. Some say: 'Take care'. I say: 'Take charge'. Some look to 'retire'. I say 'refire'. Courage is not the absence of fear, it is the conquering of it. When you dare to attack it, fear will then loosen its grip on you. Opportunity does not come to those who wait, rather it comes to those who attack. Those who risk nothing gain nothing.

The richest place on the planet is not the diamond mines of South Africa, nor the oil fields of Kuwait. The richest place on the planet is the cemetery. In the cemetery we bury inventions never produced, ideas and dreams that never became reality, and hopes and aspirations that were never pursued.

Many take to the grave the most vibrant and explosive resource the world could ever know — God given dreams and visions. IT'S TIME TO DREAM AGAIN! The poorest man is not the one without a penny, but he who is without a dream.

People today poison the daring young mind with toxic thoughts of timidity and failure. They spew venomous criticism that says "settle down and be like everyone else." God says "Rise up and take a stand. Dream big enough to challenge your faith." Dream big enough for God to fit into your dreams. I am not talking about being weird, I am talking about being unique. There is a difference.

The only limitations we have are the size of our dreams and the degree of our determination. Who is the man who can determine what is impossible? For the dreams of yesterday are the hope of today — the reality of our tomorrow. Every great achievement commanding honor in the annals of the world, began as a dream. Nothing great was ever achieved without it.

Many today disengage when just on the horizon, lies a glimpse of the victory. Weary from the journey, an attitude begins to weave its web that says: "No matter what happens the rest of the way, this voyage has been a success." Satisfied with present attainments, they hope to coast into the finale.

A dear friend of mine once posed this thought to me: "Yesterday is history, tomorrow a mystery, and today is a gift. That is why they call it - the present". Take advantage of the present. Seize today. The best way to predict the future - CREATE IT! Do it today. Someday is not a day of the week.

The past is our teacher, the present our opportunity, and the future is our friend. People relish the past. At the turn of the century the impact of the great Welsh and Azusa street revivals swept across the world. In the 40's and 50's a healing revival caused huge tents and auditoriums to be filled to capacity. Today people long for the return of the old. We are chained to the past, too often limited to barriers and borders of our forefathers. Let us learn from the past, at the same time avoid being bound to it. God says: 'Behold, I will do a new thing'. (Is. 43: 18)
- Mike Francen http://www.gofwo.org/index.cfm?t=0&s=7

His ministry goals aren't exactly bad... anyone shooting for one million salvations and one thousand church plants per year amongst other things isn't exactly passive...