Here's a rare article from one of my heroes in the Faith, Pastor Bill Johnson. It's titled, "Plundering Egypt".

My travels in ministry often take me to the center of Nevada. Nine hours in the car is a pain to most every part of my body. Reno is on the way, and is a nice halfway point. I now break this trip into two days travel, instead of one.
Reno is actually a great place to stay, if the local interests don't distract you. Because of the gambling, they are able to provide great prices at their hotels for lodging and meals, hoping we'll lose our shirt in the name of recreation. This Hilton has a wonderful fitness gym, with a fair amount of weights. By staying there, I can continue doing my workout before hitting the road.
When I called the Hilton to make reservations, I was pleased to discover they had a special deal; one night for $46, plus $15 in coins. Coin? No problem to me. Fifteen silver dollars spend as good as paper money, which means my room was really $31 - a very, very, good price.
When I came back through Reno I got my second coupon for coins and went to the appropriate place to exchange them both for cash. The woman behind the counter asked me what I wanted, "Quarters or silver dollars?" To walk out with $30 in quarters seemed somewhat uncomfortable, so I asked for dollars. To my surprise, their coins are not real currency. They are coins, minted for their machines only! I made the mistake of asking her where I could exchange them for real money. Apparently, in doing so, I hit a nerve. She lost her business-like social skills and informed me in a rather angry tone of voice that those coins were given to me so I could gamble. I smiled, thanked her for her help, and left with $30 in fake money.
Just think, $30 to use in their slot machines. Could this be Jehovah Jireh, God my Provider? Maybe there is a Jackpot of $1,000,000 just waiting for me to take that step of faith. "Oh God, I'll split it with You, fifty, fifty. No, no, I've reconsidered and am feeling real generous. You take 75%, and leave me with a measly ol' $250,000. That much money could really bless the Kingdom!" There is also the thought that this would be a great way to "plunder Egypt" - to take from an evil system and release it into the ministry of the Kingdom of God. And who could call it gambling? It's not even my money. Technically, it's not a gamble when I stand to lose nothing. Or, do I?
This past summers forest fires reveal the potential devastation of one careless act. A house that took thousands of man hours to build is destroyed in moments. The empires of wealthy people, that took decades to create, are gone in minutes. The thought of rebuilding is overwhelming. And there are the many items that can never be replaced.
How long does it take to build credibility and a good name? All the time you have. That is part of our life's work. With one careless act, that work can be destroyed. Is the prospect of winning $1,000,000 worth that possible loss? Not for me. Even worse than losing the above mentioned $30 in coins would be to win the million dollars. Why? Because I would have done something that would have been published far and wide - "Pastor wins a million in Reno" - again, lowering the standard of righteousness. I owe more than that to a generation that is desperately looking for examples to follow.
Am I saying that gambling will send someone to Hell? After all, it's a gamble just to drive on our freeways. No. But greed has sponsored many into a Christless eternity. Greed is at the heart of the world system and is the foundation of gambling. To accept that method of earnings goes against the whole counsel of scripture.
What about those who gamble with a modest amount of money, as recreation? I applaud anyone who has the self control to stop at a modest amount. There are so many who can't say no to the hope of wealth, and in turn put the welfare of their family at risk. But the real point is, it is not true recreation. It doesn't re-create anything we should want in our lives in the first place.
There is a better way. If you really want to prosper, do it the way that lasts and lasts. Take your lottery money, your one-armed bandit money, and your crap-table money (a moment of divine inspiration came upon the one who named that game), and place it into missions, or give it to the poor. Giving is never a gamble. It always brings a return. In addition, it plugs us into the order and benefits that exist in the Kingdom of God. And the result is true prosperity . . . real re-creation.
I have been invited to return to central Nevada in the spring. If I drive I will no doubt stay at the Reno Hilton. I will eat there, and work out in their gym before the 4 1/2 hour drive. But, exchange my name for 30 pieces of silver? No thanks. That's been done before.

I've got to do a blog here on depression. There are so many people I know that have this cloud of despair over their eyes that hinders their ability to see the goodness of God in their lives. Watching those close to you walk out such torment is a kind of torment in itself. Because we know that the answer lies in the power of the Holy Spirit, we may attempt to offer this simple remedy in advice that, while true, doesn't begin to address the depth of the issue. To say to a depressed person that all he or she has to do is lay hold of that would be like telling me that all I have to do to get healthier is to bench press 300 lbs ten times a day. The advice is true but physically I'm not in a place where I can accomplish that. People who are facing depression aren't in a place where they have the will to lay hold of the answer on their own.

The power of prayer is the power of agreement and many people are not in a place to come into agreement with the Word of God. Offense toward God is a cancer in the soul. I got a picture of the enemy's tactic here in that every word that is spoken that can bring life, becomes twisted where, in the mind of one in depression, it brings death. You may have come to a place where the enemy has brought you into agreement and through agreement the enemy is empowered in your thoughts. Lies that say you've failed, that you've missed it (the plan and purpose of God) that you can't face another day, that life is an enemy to you, that death is a friend, that others would be better off without you, that God has turned a blind eye toward your self destruction, that everything is just too hard. Satan will do to you the same thing he did to Adam and Eve. He'll talk and talk until you agree or rebuke him.

What happens when you fill yourself with the promises of God and refuse to believe the lies of the enemy? The enemy will exploit every channel he can to attempt to bring you to a place of discouragement, doubt, unbelief, fear, and torment. If he can't bring that directly to you he will find the one closest to you and pour it on to bring you into a place of fatigue, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. If he can drain your capacity to focus on the word of the Lord, care for those in your charge, and doubt the goodness of God for you, then he has effectively incapacitated your ability to release the anointing within you that is meant to affect the world around you. He can't kill you so he will try to stop you from advancing. What's happened then? The enemy has found the soil of agreement and the fruit of this is confusion for others for when good people believe evil things, the product is darkness disguised as light.

If this is what you are experiencing, then I commit to stand with you in prayer that together we will maintain focus on the Word of the Lord, care for those in our charge, and never doubt the goodness of God. I have cut off two things from my life forever that have helped me stay insulated and effective. I will never blame God, and I will never allow guilt and shame to infect me. Those two things have become my filter for discerning the truth from the lies of the enemy. Never blame God and never allow guilt and shame to have a place in your heart.

Standing firm to see His Kingdom come.

Fish Stories, Weblogs, and the Man

After five years of blogging on the same template, I've changed to a new style. It's kind of hard to get used to. Especially since I've never had the profile turned on so I have 19 brand new hits to the profile in the past 20 minutes. Looks like nobody's even looked at the site in seven years. I mean, after a decade of writing you would think I would have millions of hits but here we're twelve years into this and less than two dozen profile views which is only a couple of years longer than I've been writing on this thing.

Actually, I was forced by the "man" to make the change. See, they messed with my old template and took away the archives so I had to move to a new template so the archives would appear again. Now you can go back all the way to the good ol days of 2002, track my writings between then and now, and ponder what went wrong. On another note, I'm thoroughly honored that the folks at REP (Republicans for Environmental Protection) have requested to use the blog below this on the front page of their newsletter. They're good people with a sensible agenda that declares that progress and conservation can co-exist to the betterment of us all. To that I say, Amen.

When the opportunity arises for a free dinner at a country club on Maui, one would be unwise not to take advantage of such an event. So it was when I was invited to the Maui county Republican convention where my good friend was vying for the voting affections of a few dozen retirees with sun soaked faces and strangely dyed hair. It's amazing that such a small crowd decides the political leadership for the whole party, but I guess everyone else had to work or surf. I was seated at a round table with eight people including a brilliant man, we'll call him Lewis. He was busy telling the man next to him of the scientific reasons why Al Gore is an academic jellyfish and that global warming is a hoax and saying enough things about carbon dioxide to make me realize that this man was an expert in gas. I'm an expert in gas, after all I have a thirteen year old son. But the thing that made me put my trembling fork down was when he said that man has no affect on the environment. Now I'm no scientist but here was my take. "Excuse me," I say. "You mean to tell me that you believe that man has no effect on the environment?" He responded by saying, "None whatsoever." A heated exchange ensues. I mean has he never driven in Los Angeles?

Now here's where many of my fellow Republicans have become complete dunderheads. Let's pretend that I say to my son, "You're not taking care of your room. It's a disaster area. Now clean it up." What if he comes back to me with this response? "This mess has no affect on the structural integrity of this house and I can prove that scientifically." While he may be completely correct, his attitude demonstrates a great deal about his character. Whether or not the structural integrity of the house is in question is not the issue. The issue is that he has a responsibility to be a good steward of that which he has been entrusted with. If he fails to do that, he demonstrates a significant lack of character though the house continues to stand.

The Republican platform is built upon a base of people to whom character is a big deal. Many of them also read the scriptures on a regular basis which contains a great deal of instruction regarding man's care and stewardship of this planet. In order for the Republicans to capture the hearts of my generation, they're going to have to care less about proving Al Gore wrong and care more about the earth than Al claims to. If they can't do that, and the room remains a disaster area, they demonstrate a serious character flaw, though the house continues to stand.

Healing

This week I've seen some cool things. A 20 year asthma condition healed. That was one of the church's secretaries who, during a service, had a vision of herself healed. That day, she was. That was really cool. Then there was an amazing lady who, in spite of the torment of depression and a constant well of rage inside of her, pressed through week after week to offer a sacrifice of worship to God though her countenance was distant from her actions. Last week she was flooded with joy and the depression lifted for the first time in a year and a half and the joy has remained. Again, very cool. I don't fully comprehend why some are healed and some aren't. Certainly the ratio is not near 100%. I have my theories but that's for another time. What I can do is to look at those who have been healed and find some common characteristics. In both of these cases (as well as the other miracles I've seen here) those who have seen a breakthrough manifest in their physical bodies were people who, without offense, pressed through a season of lack by offering to God the most precious of gifts, worship in the midst of suffering. They also seem to avoid the two most common responses to suffering. Guilt/shame, and blaming God. Neither of these things I could find in any of those who have been healed. Proverbs 13:12 reads like this. "Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when desire comes, it is a tree of life. Whoever despises the word shall be destroyed, but he that fears the commandments shall be rewarded."

Redeeming Trauma and Tragedy

There's a need to look at this with eyes not clouded by bitterness and see that herein lies a powerful hope. That is the revelation of how to redeem trauma. As a believer you have access to blessing in every area of your life. I believe this with all of my being. Forgiven of sin, free from sickness, and delivered from torment. What would it be like if any event of your past could be brought up and you feel no need to defend yourself? Salvation through Jesus Christ gave you permission to live as though you had never sinned. I'll take it a step further. Anytime you revisit your past sins (apart from the blood of Jesus) you open yourself up to a spirit of deception. Why? Because it doesn't exist any longer for the blood of Jesus didn't just cover it. It removed the sin. When you revisit past sins you recreate the event to the point where you begin to feel the emotion of guilt or shame associated with that event that doesn't exist. What's happened? You're subjecting yourself to events and emotions that Jesus Christ died to redeem. Hope is the immune system of the believer and it's at this point that you trade the hope in your heart for shame. Any place in your life where there is no hope is a place where a stronghold exists that is built upon a foundation of a lie of the enemy that you have believed. When you believe the truth of the Word of God, you are taken to a supernatural level of freedom. When you believe a lie of the enemy you are taken to a supernatural level of bondage.
At the end of every disappointment we are at an extreme state of vulnerability where we are drawn into questioning the goodness of God for us. When someone said to you, "God is good." you might have responded with, "He's good to some." You then begin to devalue what you have believed and start sacrificing what God has given you to embrace disappointment. I have piles of questions based upon what I don't understand, but if I sacrifice what I do understand for those things that I don't, I am trading the truth for a lie.

What's the cure?

First, be honest to God, not religious. Spend time weeping before God in honesty, not accusation. Take time in this. You'll take it now or later, for bitterness will take you to a place of disease. That is dis-ease. When you don't take care of the issues of the heart you remove yourself from the umbrella of divine protection and make yourself a candidate for affliction. The affliction is not from God nor is it Him saying, "This is ok with Me." It's you unwilling to work with God to deal with the issue. Continue to go before Him and pour out your heart. If you will not allow the peace that passes understanding to come you'll probably never find the understanding you're looking for.

Second, find your voice in the Psalms. Look for your heart's cry. The Psalms contain every possible emotion and is well representative of every conflict and tragedy there is in life. When you find your heart's cry read it as if it were your own voice. Most of the time, the answer is there as well.

Third, rightly discern the Lord's body. 1 Corinthians 11:23 talks about this in communion and says some huge things about why many believers are sick and dying. The cup is the shed blood of Jesus that dealt with sin. What's the broken body for? Discerning the body of Christ is taking the time to realize the price that was paid for your healing. This is more than a remembrance of former things. It's a reminder that Jesus paid for something. Why do I pray for the sick and contend for healing and count disease as an enemy? Because I want Jesus to get what He paid for. I don't know who all will read this article, but please know this. Jesus paid for your miracle in blood. The same faith you have for your salvation is the same faith that will raise you up to complete newness of life. Spirit, soul, AND body.

Monte Montgomery. A master of the acoustic guitar and a favorite Austin musician. I just am awed by this level of talent.

I'm living a dream. You see, I have this imagination that works like the director of a film considering the score, the lighting, the visual enhancements, every look, detail, and nuance that will communicate in a deeper way with the audience. Events that seem boring, mundane, and insignificant to some can, for me, be a history altering moment with eternal significance and value. It's like this. Two people stand in front of a painting of the sky. One says, "I see an endless expanse with limitless possibilities, yet on the left the sky darkens and fortells of a storm to come. This explains the shading on the clouds and the direction and motion of the waves. The other guy says, "It's got alot of blue." I'm not the second guy. I like to explore the story as an author who delves instead of a journalist who simply describes. So as you can imagine, on a tropical island surrounded by people who are, shall we say "different", I would have no end of material to write about. And if you indeed come to that conclusion, you would be correct. However, the difference here is that the stories are already so colorful that there is no need for me to explore the meaning behind the colors of the sky and in doing so illuminate to you that the picture is not merely, ahem, blue. So let me tell you one such story that needs nothing but the facts for it's so fascinating in itself that...well, you'll see what I mean.

Friday morning, I went down the road through various gulches and corners of the rainforest, through Haiku to the YWAM (Youth With A Mission) base there for the 8am worship gathering. The makeshift campus sits on a lush, soggy, green slope of land that hangs on the side of a gulch thick with ancient trees that make it look as if you could walk across the top of them. With multiple facilities and more people than rooms to accomidate them, the campus has that "hippie" vibe working itself out in a true sense of community. On this morning they decided to do worship outside because after all this is Hawaii. We gathered in a circle (because neo-hippie Jesus People like circles) and the worship team got in the center. "Now", says the worship leader, "We are going to illustrate the body of Christ today in our worship so the musicians will be the heart and rather than look inward we're going to take our focus outside so every one in the circle turn and face outside." With the accoustic guitars strummin and the dumbek drums humming the rhythm made it easy to move with the wind. Worshipping the Lord outside in an acoustic drum circle in Maui. Am I in a dream? Being on the wet side of the island meant that we were fortunate to have some dry weather in the morning but halfway through the worship a mist began to fall and I instinctively initially thought about seeking shelter. However the musicians kept on going and in spite of the rain seemed to have no plans to move. So there we stood. Around 50 people, in a circle, facing the outside, worshipping God, in the rain, on Maui. I looked up and to my left and saw a rainbow. Yes, a rainbow. This is the problem of writing like a journalist. The mere facts don't communicate the awesome sense of spiritual joy that such an event contains. Next Tuesday we'll be going down to Paia to share the Gospel and worship with these students. This must be a slice of the abundant life that Jesus was talking about.

I was asked recently how certain teachers have impacted my life over the years. It occurred to me that the ones who made the greatest impact I remember not so much for what they said, but for what they did.

In 5th grade I had a teacher named Mrs. Haugen in the little town of Lake Benton, MN.  We called her Mrs. H.  She looked and operated like the supernanny.  (Supernanny rocks by the way.)  Anyhow, most of my memories of her have nothing to do with what she said but a lot to do with what she did.  She had us make commercials with this new invention called a camcorder.  I still remember the commercial we made for 'Baxter Burneys Baked Beans'.  She had us doing plays on a regular basis and performing them for our peers and parents.  I was Rip Van Winkle once.  We had to construct some kind of vessel that would carry a raw egg four stories to the ground below without letting it break.  We flew kites while she taught us about weather.  We spent a good amount of time building and launching rockets in the football field.  We watched a lot of videos like 3-2-1 Contact (I still remember the theme song).  She was fascinated with the world and whenever anyone would travel on a vacation she would make sure they reported to the class in vivid detail what they had seen and done.  We painted a lot and cooked stuff that wasn't fit to eat.  We set fires and made messes and learned some really valuable lessons on the importance of teamwork.  Now that I type all of this, I have to reiterate that I can't remember anything she said.  But I'll never forget what she did.

There's quite a bit in the Bible about the dual productivity of doing and teaching. (Nick to Jesus in John 3..."We know that you're a teacher come from God for no one can DO these things you do except God be with Him." Acts 1..."This is a record o Theophilus of all that Jesus did and taught.") It's a fascinating study that illuminates the reality that in the Kingdom of God it's illegal just to talk. Having said that, I've been blown away at my Dad these past days. He and Mom arrived on the island last week and, without fail, have led at least one person to Christ every day since they've been here. I'm not just talking about an evangelical ambush, but obvious divine appointments in which a person who's hungry runs into someone looking to give away bread. I've heard more sermons of his than I can count, yet for all of the talking and invaluable conversation that we've shared (especially recently) his life preaches speaks far louder than he can. All of this is not to minimize the importance of 'saying' for the spoken/written word is a powerful creative force that can change a life. It's to maximize the vitality of the 'doing' for that is the very thing that, while difficult to master, can change the world. I'd like to try that sometime.

As many of you know by now, we have relocated from Austin, Texas to the island of Maui in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. This year has been one of great transition for us and we are eternally grateful to God for His blessings of family and friends who have been praying for direction for this next season of our lives. As for this next season, we are settling into life in the islands quite well. Moving to Hawaii is like moving to a third world country in some ways. As of this writing, 90% of the boxes we shipped over a month ago have not arrived and the ones that have bear little resemblance to the ones that we shipped. This is fine with us as we sold or gave away most of what we owned before we left. That may seem somewhat shocking but I've got to say it was one of the most liberating experiences of my life. When we finally were rid of our last car and turned in the house key to our landlords in Austin, we then realized that we had no keys to anything but the kingdom.

We left Austin in the middle of an ice storm that had nearly shut the city down. Our intention was to fly out on Tuesday, the 16th however the airport had run out of the de-icing chemical so our flight was cancelled for one day. We finally were able to leave on Wednesday but had to spend the night in Phoenix. This turned out to be a tremendous blessing because we had the chance to spend the evening with friends who we had wanted to get to see for quite some time. Thursday morning we arrived at the airport only to to find our flight delayed due to mechanical problems. An hour and a half later we boarded the flight for Maui with all of our belongings in suitcases. We arrived six and a half hours later and were greeted at the airport by Pastor Robb Finberg and his sons. They loaded up our luggage and we headed up to our new home. The church has been so gracious to us and blessed us far beyond what we could ask or think. The Hawaiian people are quite possibly the most generous people we have ever met.

Maui has, at any given time 135,000 people on the island and 45,000 visitors. Each year, millions of people from all over the world visit Maui making it a gateway for spreading the Gospel to the ends of the earth. This past Sunday there were represented in the congregation of our church, people from Nigeria, Indonesia, Thailand, Viet Nam, Korea, Sri Lanka, Fiji, and the Philippines, just to name a few. We're excited about this opportunity to give a message that can be carried all over the world. In addition to Pastoring, I have taken up the hobby/occupaton of underwater videographer. I have had the blessing of being able to work with a company who films marine life and locations around the island. This is a dream for me and an amazing thing to be able to do. Traci is fixing up the house and making it a home, Britain is patiently begging to learn how to surf, and Sara is making a ton of new friends with names like Makanna, Uilanni, and Kokomo.

It's hard to preach about heaven to the Hawaiian people because they believe, in some ways, they're already there. The spiritual nature of the people makes it possible to see miracles happen with great frequency for they're not crippled with unbelief. Hawaii has a rich Christian heritage stemming from a great revival that happened in the early 1800's. The seal of the state bears this inscription. "The Life of the Land is Perpetuated in Righteousness" The belief at the time of that writing was that the very health of the land and those who lived on it would prosper and be in health even as their soul prospered. As unrighteousness has crept in, Hawaii has now become the most liberal of the states, nearly crossing the line into becoming a socialist society. Drugs and suicide plague the islands and the people who know the heritage are beginning to cry out to God to once again, visit the islands with a wave of revival. This cry is not only being made by those here in Maui, but in many congregations on the mainland as well. Is your heart hungry for revival? God promised that if we would hunger and thirst after righteousness, that we would be filled. I pray that God would visit this land, our land, with a manifestation of his Glory that would shake the nations. May it be so in our day.

It’s interesting where life takes you or rather, where life follows you. A slow leaving of a place is difficult, not unlike the long, grinding ride to the top of that first hill of the rollercoaster. Tonight we sit in what will be our house for the last few days of living in Austin, TX. We leave next Tuesday morning for the island of Maui, to a new house, a new direction, a new world. A new season in a land with none. What do I expect? God. That’s all. I just expect God. I don’t expect Him to do a certain thing or to manifest a particular way. I just expect God. It’s not a pilgrimage to find God. The finding has been done. It’s a pilgrimage to a deeper walk in the secret place under the shadow that heals. That experience has been very real for me in recent months. The reality of those surprising supernatural intellect boggling encounters is undeniable and has forever left me changed. This is ...(long pause)... The realization of a dream. The awakening of an inheritance. The hand reaching out to lay hold of the mantle left behind. The answer to the prayer of another. The grateful recipient of new life to things once thought dead. I’m 33 this year. How significant that the year of the resurrection of Jesus Christ would be the year of mine as well. If the Son of God became the Son of man so the sons of men could become the sons of God, then I contend for the fullness of the standard of Christ to be manifest in our day. May it be so from Austin to Maui. Austin has been a home for us and a good one at that. We have family (both spiritual and literal) here. The blessing of being a minister in your home town is that you learn to do it without honor. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, especially when your home town is Austin. This city epitomizes cool in every carnal sense of the word. The music is great, the food is fantastic, and the people are generally friendly. A hill country sunset can soothe a sorry day like not much else and every other cantina serves the best salsa you’ve ever tasted. Every place has it’s negatives and I’m glad to say that Austin has fewer than most. Perhaps one day we’ll live here again. Traci would like that very much for this town is all she has ever known as home. Despite it’s destination, this move has been difficult for her. She deeply loves her family and has an amazing bond with her sisters and can quickly be overwhelmed at the thought of change. I admire and marvel at her for being willing to do something new and wonderful and exciting. She’s a disciplined and diligent woman and God knows I needed such a creature in my life. The fact that I fell in love for one so unlike me still leaves me saying, "Thank you Lord." She has dared to not only let me dream, but dream with me. She is truly a marvelous woman and I love her with all of my heart. I’m blessed to have lived where we’ve lived. I’m blessed to be going where we’re going. I’m blessed to have incredible children who are so excited about all of this. I’m blessed with parents who have given me faith in the God who invades the impossible. I’m blessed with friends that have become the brothers and sisters I never had. I’m blessed with the thought of the future. Tonight, I’m a blessed blessed man.

Taken from a journal entry in 1997.

Each person is navigating an unpredictable sea full of wonder and possibility. Whatever security and predictability we try to create is merely illusion that gives short term peace of mind. Only those who come to accept the unpredictability of life can find lasting peace. Creating temporal security is like dropping an anchor on a hundred foot chain into water a thousand feet deep. We're temporarily happy that we've dropped anchor until we come to realize that we still drift. The analogy of the hymn that speaks of being anchored in the Rock of Ages is full of truth not only that Christ is a 'rock' but that He is the only security. And yet, He, full of wonder and possibility, is like the ocean. He's faithful but not predictable. He's secure but not safe. "He is not a tame lion." Perhaps that is why God likes children. For their insatiable appetite for adventure. Let a child loose in a church sound booth and you'll see what I mean. It's not so much that God is like a child, but that children are so much like God. Somewhere along the way we get old and our divine sense of wonder begins to die. Along with the death of wonder comes the cynical resignation to turn Que Sera Sera into a worship anthem. This is why miracles are so important. They let us know that there is no such thing as impossible.

Now here's an interesting train of thought. We're warned in Eph 4 not to be tossed about by every wind of doctrine. Yet Jesus said in Jn 3 that those born of the Spirit are like the wind in that you can't tell where they're coming from or where they're going. He's not talking about the Spirit, but He's saying believers who are empowered and led by the Spirit move like the wind. Now how does the Christian now submit to the Spirit without being tossed about? The issue is not the wind. It's in that from which the wind originates. In one case it's the Spirit (Jn 3) in the other it's doctrine (Eph 4). If Paul had said don't be tossed about by every wind of the Spirit, we may have a major dilemma here. But instead he says, every wind of doctrine. The question then remains, are we following a principle or a Presence? Principles are what you have left when the Presence is gone.

I don't believe that doctrine was never meant to be simply a list of things we claim to believe. Doctrine is an invitation for a Divine encounter. John 3 says that Jesus was known as a 'teacher' come from God for nobody could 'do' the things that He did. Instruction without example is illegal. It's not ok just to talk. What good is to believe that God heals today if we never contend for healing? To believe that God wills some to be diseased and struggle is to say that the Father is applying to man the curse that Jesus died to destroy. That's saying that the Father and the Son are at crossed purposes.

If salvation applied only to the soul and spirit I'm thrilled, but the demonstration of the Power of God that brings eternal salvation to the soul also ought to have effect in the body. The same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead will make your mortal body alive if He dwells in you. The word 'saved' in Scripture is 'sozo' meaning the whole person, spirit, soul, and body. So then to accept that invitation for Divine encounter, two things must take place. Sin has to be dealt with and I must be empowered by the Spirit. The blood of Jesus dealt with sin so that's settled. The only question now is how empowered by the Spirit will I be? In this season we are drawn to meditate on the mystery of Jesus. Fully man, yet fully God. By submitting himself to our limitations, and then redeeming us by His blood, He is now inviting us to submit ourselves to His limitations. What limitations does Jesus have? The Kingdom of God is all about advancement. "...and of the increase of His government, there shall be no end." May it be so on our watch.

It's been difficult to write on the blog lately. Even starting this one, I hesitate, type, erase, retype, ponder, pray, close the window, go do something else, come back to it, rinse, lather, repeat... There's so much in me to share. Anyone who has conversed with me in person in the past two months knows this to be the case. After this season of ministry, life, triumph, tragedy, and transition, I'm just not content to hide behind theory any longer. Either the Kingdom is real or I've just taught ideas and concepts. To push the promises of Scripture into a past or future period of history for which I have no responsibility is simply making an excuse for a substandard version of authentic Christianity. No more making excuses and calling it doctrine. So I guess I've been more interested in hearing what's being said than saying what I want to be heard. I want to hear both what God has said and what God is saying. He's got a lot to say. (Jn 16) So bear with me and my sporadic posts for now. There will come a time for writing. For now I just want to hear and see what needs to be written.

You cannot change your heart. God will not change your mind. But if you will change your thoughts, God will change your heart.

More thoughts, impressions, and quotes from this past weekend.

- Faith comes by hearing the Word of God. Not from having heard.

- We are kept honest by taking what we have out there. The healing ministry was never designed for the church. Divine health is designed for the church. Healing is supposed to be taken out there. Wouldn't it be tragic to come to the end of time and glance back through human history and see that the only generation to experience divine health was the children of Israel in rebellion in the wilderness? How can an inferior covenant provide a superior blessing?

- What God brings into your house (church) better have a way of being released from the house or it will die in the house.

- Any one of us who visit any event in our past apart from the blood of Jesus voluntarily subject ourselves to a spirit of deception. Your past is off limits to you except to review what Jesus has done. You are a trophy of grace. When you revisit the dark places in your past you fall under the shadow of that sin even though from Heaven's perspective it was purchased and completely removed and no longer has power. So what are you doing? You're actually revisiting something that no longer exists which makes you subject to a spirit of deception.

- The Scriptures are 100% the Word of God, but unless the Spirit makes it alive it's the letter that kills. The purpose of revelation is to bring you to a Divine encounter that leads to personal transformation. In John 5 Jesus tells the Pharissees, "You search the Scriptures because you think that in them is eternal life but it's these that testify of Me and you're unwilling to come to Me." Any revelation that does not lead you to a Divine encounter only makes you more religious. We're not studying the Scriptures to equip us to debate with the Christians down the street.

- When the Lord reveals truth, we don't always understand with our mind but our spirit bears witness to it's truth. Your spirit can wrap itself around what your mind cannot yet. God is interested in the mind but He doesn't want to gratify your intellect when the Spirit is supposed to be in charge. When the mind is in charge it's called carnal Christianity.

- The Kingdom of God is a Kingdom of continuous advancement. To think anything different is contrary to the Kingdom. "Of the increase of His government there shall be no end."

- Inheritance is you enjoying the benefits of that which you did not pay for. If we do not expand the inheritance we have been given we lose what we've been given. Note the parable of the talents. There is no honor in simply maintaining an inheritance. It's a problem that no revival has ever expanded in the second generation. We have been lousy stewards of outpourings of the Spirit of God for we end up making them about a person and when it comes to our treatment of leadership in the body of Christ we either tear them down or exalt them past their place and if we can lift up a person as our object of worship we elevate them beyond our ability to follow their example.

- Many prophecies that have not come true in your life were not promises of God, they were descriptions of your potential. They were summons by the Lord for you to pursue something that is possible.

- How is it that the fires of the Wesleyan revival have diminished into the Methodists we see today? Where John Wesley took ground proclaiming the holiness of the Lord, today there is a branch of that denomination that recognizes leaders who openly practice homosexuality. Yale university founded as training center for the expansion of the Gospel, today is a center for humanism devoted in large part to undermining the very faith it was started to promote. When those who pay a price for revival pass it on to those who are not willing to pay the price to see it continue we end up with a form of previous things. A form has no power. This is true in churches, movements, and family lineages. You must wake up to the concept of inheritance. When a realm that was once possessed by the people of God is abandoned and the standard of sacrifice is lowered then the enemy has access to re-enter and it's always worse than it was at the first.

- What is an inheritance? It's when you get something for free that someone else paid a price for. How are you going to have an inheritance to pass on? By paying a price to expand what you got for free. Today's decisions affect a generation that you will never see. The things that are revealed are the possession of God's people forever.