When I work on the dive boat, I have the chance to spend a day with strangers on their vacation. They come with all sorts of attitudes. You learn which newlyweds are still in love 48 hrs after the vows and which ones are sitting there zoned at the realization that not only will life never be the same but they'll be paying this trip off for the next 30 years. It's not uncommon for people to come to Maui and in going "all out" drop 20 thousand on a couple weeks of paradise. Truly an unforgettable experience for reasons both good and bad. But it's not the good nor the bad that makes an impression here. It's the ugly.

I had a group of people on the boat recently, we'll call group number one. They showed up forty minutes late, making the rest of the passengers wait and without a word of apology to the rest of the crew, boarded as though they owned the boat. Loud, obnoxious, and without regard for the rules of the watercraft. The captain wasn't amused. As they prepared to hit the ocean, the silicone and botox was on display. Modesty in swim attire was nowhere to be found. The captain was amused. When the bar opened, they indulged freely, increasing the volume with every mai tai. When the day was over, I packed my gear and walked away frustrated. See, this group was a group of Christian people who were part of a church. They had called and lightly demanded a group discount on that basis and when 15% was offered they asked if they could make it 20%. After all, they're Christians in church leadership and the world is entitled to offer them a little somethin.

Fast forward to the following Saturday with group 2. A bus unloads a group of people who have chartered the boat, crew, and video guy for the day. A dozen couples arrive, on time, well mannered, very polite. They kindly listened to instructions and shocked the crew by following them. These early to middle aged husbands and wives were extremely pleasant and the swimwear was about as modest as you'll ever see in Maui. When the bar opened, many abstained and went for the local juice, pog. (Passion, Orange, Guava) At the end of the day they tipped heavily and I was sorry to see them go. This group was made up of web pornographers. They were the CEO's of companies that distribute pornographic content on the internet and collectively, controlled more than 50 million sites between them. When I learned this, I was shocked. (Kind of like you are right now.) One of the men on the trip, I found later, was responsible for much of the porn spam. The kind that plagues the PC of those who navigate off the narrow road only to find their computer filled with spyware. Had I known that while we were diving, I may have turned off his air or put a jellyfish in his wetsuit. I came home and showed the pictures of each group to my wife and then told her what they did for a living and she was stunned.

This begs the question, what in the world makes us different? I've written this before but it's the power and nature of God within us that makes us different. The nature or character that we display in the way we do life opens the door for that power to be released. We are equally obligated to demonstrate both. The Holy Spirit may be in every believer, but He rests upon very few. There are two rails that keep us from going off the edge when it comes to the Holy Spirit. One is "grieve not" the other is "quench not". Grieve not is to keep us from doing, thinking, and harboring things in our heart that are inconsistent with God's heart. If I'm selfish, bitter, filled with hatred, I'm grieving Him, because I have embraced something in myself that is not found in His heart. Quench not is to keep us from embracing an invalid agenda by stopping the flow of His Spirit who is likened unto a river. You put a kink in a garden hose, you stop the flow. If your Sunday worship service is timed out to the minute for the comfort of the people under the guise of decent order you have put a kink in the hose. Why? Because in order for the Spirit to flow, time and attention must be given to that and when your agenda doesn't allow for it, His manifest presence would need to violate what you have created. Ask yourself this. Does the Holy Spirit flow freely in our gatherings? If not, that needs to bother you. You cannot be comfortable with lack when it comes to the Holy Spirit. Pastor, are you nervous about this? That's why He's called the comforter. When the river flows, people get nervous and that needs to be ok with you. Jesus' life is the picture of what flows from the heart of the Father, from the throne of God, down to humanity and He left the world so flood damaged with His presence that we have yet to recover. Picture this. Peter's shadow heals because whatever overshadows you will be released in your shadow. Ps 91.

The Bible says the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus in the form of a dove, "and remained". Get this picture. How do you walk in such a way as not to cause a dove to fly from your shoulder? Ever step you would take would have to be made aware of what you carry. This is not to build a sense of insecurity. The Spirit is in you for your sake but is upon you for the sake of others, and a person who does not position themselves as a contributor to the overall work of God on earth is not going to be a person upon whom the richness of the Holy Spirit is manifest. The treasure is not the power He brings, rather the treasure is the presence itself. God is looking for people upon whom the Holy Spirit can rest and that will be upon you who desire Him and invite Him and walk with the awareness of what you carry.

By request, here are the notes for this week's SOZO class. The focus this week is on the renewed mind (Romans 12).

- The Bible doesn’t say, with the mind man believes. It says, “With the heart man believes." The Spirit gets restored to God and after that the soul. As the mind, will, and emotions are renewed the body comes into alignment for it is God’s ambition that we experience divine health and in that, release divine healing. Your internal reality leaks out to become your external reality.

- The body is a servant of the mind. If the mind will be a servant of the Spirit, the body will be healed.

- 3 John 1:2 says, “I pray above all things that you would proper and be in health even as your soul prospers.” If the Spirit in you is in continuous overflow of the presence of God it will have an affect on how you think, the way you think, and the way you deal with emotional situations and as that order takes place on the inside of you the overflow manifests in your physical body. This is why Romans 8:12 says that if the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead dwells in you He will quicken your mortal body.

- 1 Corinthians 8:1 says that knowledge (mental ascent) puffs up. Revelation knowledge is meant to lead us to life but is dangerous without a divine encounter. It will only equip you to debate with other believers but divine encounter makes that knowledge an expression of life. All of God’s judgment is aimed at whatever interferes with His love.

- Mark 6:48 Hunger and desperation will bring you into that greater measure of presence. On the sea, Jesus was walking and intended to pass them by. Their cry of desperation brought His presence. There is a measure of His presence that can only be had by desperation. Hunger beyond reason conditions you to contain the answer once you receive it. Most of what we have the intelligence to ask for, God has willed that we possess in greater measure. God wants to release to us beyond all that we could ask (that’s the reach of your prayers) or think (that’s the reach of your imagination.) Ephesians 3:20

- The mind is a brilliant student but a horrible leader. The mind is a mirror of a heart that is pure before God. It’s like a canvas that God paints on as we pick up the perceptions and thoughts of the Lord. But when the mind is in charge of the Christian life it’s called carnal Christianity. Apart from the Spirit, the mind creates form without power, but submitted to the Spirit, the mind is capable of creativity that the world has not yet seen.

- Matt 28:18-20, Haggai 2:7, Only a nation can disciple a nation, and to make that impossible assignment possible He took the one who is called the Desire of all Nations and caused Him to take up residence in us. So then as the nations cry out we become the very answer to their heart’s cry. Not that we are the redeemer but with Christ in us we are able to manifest the reality that God has answers for every dilemma in society. God is very interested in restoration and you and I are agents of that change.

- Never confuse your destiny with your assignment. Your destiny is heaven. Your assignment is to bring heaven. My destiny is that I’m going to see Him when I die. My assignment is to bring Him to be seen here and now.

- Mark 8:13 After experiencing the power of Jesus, if I cannot see the unseen, my heart is still hardened and I need that greater desperation. My thinking is not to be anchored into the restriction of this world but of the resources of His world. To access the moving of the Spirit and the anointing to release the Kingdom, learn to see, hear, and remember. Remembering activates your hearing which activates your seeing. Rev 19:10. Whenever you have a spoken or written record of what God has done it carries a prophetic anointing that is released to duplicate the miracle spoken of.

- The word remember means to put together that which has been dismembered. It also is related to the word “male. The man carries the seed of reproduction and when we remember, we take the seed of a past event into a present situation. This goes both ways, in the positive and the negative, depending on what you choose to remember. This is why the renewing of the mind is so necessary for transformation. We choose to remember what God has done and not what He hasn’t done.

- You know the mind is renewed when what was formerly seen as impossible is now suddenly possible for “with God all things are possible.”

We had such a great time with Audrey. I'm tellin you, if you ever are just in need of a houseguest, (like you crave company) whether it's a person you know or not, Audrey is your deal. She is absolutely the easiest person to hang out with I've ever known. Say you're some family in the rolling Irish hills and you've just inherited some five hundred year old homestead with walls four feet thick and you've decorated it like some magazine cover and all of your friends and relatives are jealous and frankly you wouldn't want them to come over anyway but you're just itching to expose your hospitality to some appreciative human being who just exudes delight. Gimme a call, I know a nurse in Baltimore who would be right up your alley. We love and miss you Audrey. Thank you so much for coming to Maui.

I've hit this topic of offense towards God in recent posts, but I feel the need to go after it again for the sake of reminding myself that blaming God will never enable me to carry what I cry out for. Why? Because there are these hurdles of offense that we must overcome to come into a greater anointing. You must be able to bear up under the weight of the pressure that comes with the anointing you're asking for. To be able to bear up under the call that God releases upon you is huge because He will not bless you with something that will crush you. In Matthew 15 there's this amazing story of a Greek woman who comes to ask Jesus to do a miracle for her demon posessed daughter. Jesus answers her twice with what sounds like a cruel rejection. I'm not giving the children's bread to dogs, He says. What does she do? She goes right over the hurdle of offense and says, but even the crumbs from the table are given to the dogs. And Jesus goes WOW. He's so impressed that He makes sure that her story is told forever as a high water mark of how to do life. Understand that when Jesus said what He said to this woman that He did not intend to heal her daughter. He wasn't being deceptive and doing reverse psychology.

It was her ability to deal with issues of the heart where she refused to live with personal offense that qualified her for an expression of the Kingdom BEFORE HER TIME. (Please read that again until it soaks in.)

She wasn't a Jew and Jesus was supposed to pour Himself out for the Jews, be rejected by them, so that the Gentiles may be brought in. In refusing to be offended, she brought into her day a New Testament reality. The age to come is available for those who will overcome this hurdle of offense and refuse to live angry at what they don't understand.

"Well I don't know why this happened." And you probably won't. It will be explained later and that needs to be ok with you. God is releasing this to us in this day because He's trying to condition us to come into the stewardship of something really significant. We are forced to live with questions that we do not have answers for. Are you willing to live without answers? Can you live with mystery and not cancel out the revelation? It doesn't mean there are no answers? It means that things don't get solved by what you understand.

This was taken by my brother in law, Steve, from our porch a week ago.

For those who are going through the SOZO class, here's the notes you requested. For everyone else, each Sunday morning, I'll post the basic notes from the class I teach. That way, if you're interested in going through it with us, have at it.

- Today the topic is faith. We are always looking for an increase in faith, but faith doesn’t come out of striving. It comes from surrender.

- If you’ve ever embraced someone with too much cologne on, you walk away smelling like they do. He’s perfectly faithful and when you stay close to Him you walk away with faith. It’s the impression of His presence that remains upon you.

- Never be concerned with having too little faith. Be faithful with the faith you have. The loaves didn’t become much until Jesus gave thanks for the little. Anything you immerse in thankfulness expands.

- We must be a generation of people willing to step into the unknown. Faith will take us to places that require boldness. If you’re not nervous you don’t need the Comforter The reason many of us haven’t gotten to know the Holy Spirit better than we have is that we live so comfortably that we have no need of the Comforter.

- Eph 4:11-13. Perfection of what God designed us to be here on earth is determined by our revelation of Jesus Christ.

- There are those who would say that we shouldn’t pursue an experience but when you get married you don’t get the theology of marriage, you enter into an experience. We are called the Bride of Christ. Some would say that in pursuit of experience you’re vulnerable to deception but if you’re content to live without experience you’re already deceived.

- The Lord is inviting you into the journey of discovery Pro 25:2 Believers are those willing to pursue what He has declared is possible. Your royalty becomes manifest in your pursuit of what you have legal right to in the realm of mystery. Eph 1:9, Eph 3:3, Col 1:9,

- John 1:51, Jn 2:11, Jn 3:12, Jn 16:12, Jn 16:15, Jn 17:18, Jn 20:21.

Today people all over the island are out sharing the Gospel. Thirty nine churches have joined in a massive Maui movement to share the simplicity of the Gospel of Jesus. This has been going on for three days now and just from the combined groups from upcountry churches alone, there have been more than 200 individuals who have said yes to Jesus. As I write this, there is a class of new believers meeting in the sanctuary of the church getting ready to go out together to pray for the sick, preach the Gospel, do good, and heal the oppressed. Gone are the days of endless discipleship classes before people feel worthy or equipped to let their light shine.

The most amazing testimony this week came from a lady named Robbie who went to the mall in Kahului and walked up to a man in a wheelchair to talk to him about Jesus. She begins by introducing herself and asking him if he had ever heard that God loves him and has a plan for his life. The man looked at her totally surprised and answered back. They had a good conversation which resulted in him praying with her to accept Jesus. The whole time this man looked so startled and shocked and she couldn't figure it out. The man's daughter then came out of the store and asked Robbie what she was doing. She said, "I'm just visiting with your father." The daughter said, "My father's deaf." But he wasn't anymore. When Robbie had started telling him about Jesus, his ears opened.

This is the kind of world we live in today. Where God is alive and active in His people. A powerful point to this testimony is that Robbie was just a regluar middle aged woman who decided to put her faith into action and share it. The Gospel of the Kingdom was never intended to produce superstars. We'll always have leaders, generals if you will, who proclaim follow me as I follow Christ and there's no apology for that. It's just the way the Lord works. But it was never meant that one person have such a unique anointing that they would be the resource for everyone else. It's seems to be that God elevates a person in anointing and power so that as we gather to them they would encourage and equip us (much like Peter did) so that the high point of their experience would become the new norm for the body of Christ. What would happen if every person you prayed for got healed? Within thirty days your name would be household. Every news agency would be knocking at your door and going through your trash looking for a crack in your character because the world is just that way. Those with large sums of money and great need would use every dollar at their disposal to exploit your gift or at least attempt to get you to give them your increasingly valuable time. Let's say you couldn't be bought. You've still got a problem because everytime you say yes to one you say no to a thousand others, after all, you're only one person. The pressure put on one person in that situation would be unbelievable. You would stand out so much that you would become an icon. There's a weighiness to that kind of pressure that would crush the best of us.

Yet Jesus gave us a mandate to go after this as a lifestyle and to cry out for that kind of anointing to be released through us. The pressure doesn't stop me from going after it, because Jesus' desire is that the Kingdom would come. But I pray for it sober minded. it's not a casual prayer. What's the answer? To ignore it? No. It's to have the whole body go after it together. What would it be like for an entire church body to have breakthrough and come into a greater level of anointing than we've known before? It would be the answer to the prayer spoken from the heart of our Savior. Think of it. You are the answer to the prayer of Jesus.

The realm of the Kingdom is often over the hurdle of inconvenience. There's something about this Kingdom that requires us to take posession. Why wasn't that person healed or delivered? Often it's because we've not arrived, and you have to be ok with that. It means that we continue to embrace the lifestyle of risk to pursue what Jesus told us is possible. Why? Because Jesus said it is.

John 14:12 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater [works] than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.

It means that I'm not in this for a weekend to see if it's true. It's being so convinced that this is the normal Christian life that you say yes before God gives the command. What I have seen, while still not to the standard of Jesus, has been sufficient enough to cause me to surrender the remainder of my life to pursuing. There are olympic runners who spend their entire life on a race that lasts seconds. I'm spending my life on three seconds, which I figure is probably how long it will take for Him to say, "Well done, good and faithful servant..." My whole life is for that one moment.

I took my brother in law, Steve, to attend a men's retreat out in Hana this weekend. That's a 37 mile journey with 617 switchbacks that takes roughly two hours to drive. Do the math. You go there and back on the same day you have changed direction (north, south, north, south) on tight hairpin turns 1234 times. Hana is like Hawaii before it became a state with couple thousand people living in a seaside village who don't get alot of tourists or traffic. The majority of the town is employed by the local hotel (very nice turn of the century hotel) or else they fish and sell fruit. There's not much else to do there except just be in paradise which is not bad in itself. The retreat was very good with churches from all over the state in attendance. Very cool campsites with thatched roof hale's (huts) and outdoor showers in the midst of palm trees. The meeting was held at the very edge of lava cliffs that dropped about 20 feet down straight to the clear blue ocean. The waves pounding them would send spray up into the air making for a backdrop that was unlike anything I've ever seen for a worship service. The worship leader got up and sang "Every Move I Make" which has a line in it about "waves of mercy, waves of grace..." I just laughed at the sight of these waves pounding the rocks and splashing into the air right behind him as he sang. It reminded me of a dream I had years ago of worshipping God at the edge of the ocean and singing that very song. Apparently God hadn't forgotten that dream. Here's good news for you today. God remembers the dreams that you have forgotten. When I was little, I dreamt of being a diver. My folks bought me an action figure set with a little guy who had a scuba tank and a boat. I would set the boat on the edge of a chair and everything under the seat of the chair was the mysterious underwater world. If ever there was a diver on tv or a Mutual of Omaha special with Jacques Cousteau I was rivited. It was my superbowl. For a long time I completely forgot about that. When I started this job with the dive boat, I was thrilled. But never expected what would happen to me the first time I hooked up the regulator, strapped on the bc vest, adjusted my gear, and jumped off the boat into the ocean. I took a breath underwater and suddenly I was 10 years old all over again. I mean the same exact feeling, emotion, dream, everything. It was quite a moment. While remembering is the key to saying encouraged and strengthened, He will begin to fulfill your dreams that you have left behind, forgotten in yesterday and in doing so will bring you to a place of supernatural power for today and expectation for tomorrow. I wonder what other dreams I've forgotten that God remembers? It's like being a kid on Christmas morning.

I love a good story. Growing up in the midst of master storytellers, I could sit and listen to the accounts of fishing trips gone wrong, hunting trips gone right, and all manner of tales for hours and never get bored. Jesus encouraged us to share the family stories. Deut 6 gives some stern instruction from God for us to make sure that we pass down the record of what God has done and is doing from generation to generation. In doing this it gives opportunity for the next generation to make our ceiling their floor and expand upon the inheritance they are given by us. For this reason I share testimonies. It's not about entertainment. For one thing, being aware of the need to guard the integrity of what God is doing here has taken me to a place where I care less about exciting people and more about the presence of the living God. Deut 29:29 tells us that what has been revealed belongs to us forever. Revelation is never to be lost or forgotten or else we also lose the fire of expectation and awareness of the God who invades the impossible. It's that lack of ongoing experience that has been in the past a point of stumbling for me. I always dreamed of what the Christian life should look like and what may happen if I were to be completely dependent on the Holy Spirit. Signs, wonders, and miracles would be the norm as they were in the life of Jesus, yet for many years most of what I demonstrated was not power but theology. I hoped for things to take place that would remind us all that the living God still acknowledged our offering of worship and that the Spirit empowered what I had to say. No doubt there were individuals who were in a place of revival, but corporately I wasn't prepared to lead one. My dreams of how it was supposed to be were too fantastic to ever seem as though they could be realized. Yet now, things are taking place that go beyond what I have imagined.

It's easy to fall into the snare of hyping a move of God to provoke God and man to action. This is why baseless hype is so dangerous. It misrepresents what God is actually doing. This is why we need to repent and take the gospel of the kingdom outside of the church. We are kept honest by what we take out there. We are kept honest in what we claim to believe by meshing together the foundation of teaching with the practice of doing. If we are not doing what we're teaching, perhaps we ought not teach it. Jesus hung His entire ministry and mission of whether or not He did the works of the Father. He says in John 10:37 "If I do not do the works of my Father, don't believe Me." It's time for the church to declare, "If we don't do the works of our Father, don't believe us." It is this declaration that will be the dividing point that separates out the believers from the faithless apostate church of the last days for the Kingdom of God is not is word but in power.

To create a culture that sustains a movement of revival, it's actually more simple and wonderful and obvious than I would have ever thought. (Matt 10) Preach one message, repent (change the way you think) for the kingdom of heaven is at hand (within reach). Then demonstrate the reality of it. Heal the sick, cast out demons, raise the dead, freely you have received, freely give. The concept is simple. If we teach what Jesus said to teach, and do what Jesus said to do, we'll see what He said we would see. His Kingdom come, His will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

At last night's service we had a number of great testimonies as God moved. Many words and prophecies were given which was fantastic. It was like a well of water that overflowed in the middle of the sanctuary. A couple brought their son Matthew (around 6 years old) who had torn some cartilage in his knee that day. Earlier they had to carry him into the doctor as he couldn't walk. He came to church, able to walk but with great difficulty and quite a limp. The children gathered around him and prayed and then he was brought into the sanctuary where some people gathered around and laid hands on him and began to pray. Not only did the swelling decrease, but he began to walk straight and upright. He literally ran outside and headed off to play with his friends. People next door working with the children said he came in leaping and jumping. It was a cool night. One lady who came to visit from the other side of the island, standing at her seat near the back, just got overcome by the presence of God and hit the floor right where she was. A young man, Jason, who is a new believer testified of the Holy Spirit giving him a word for a complete stranger that he was working with that day. He walked over and told him what God wanted him to say and the man listened and thanked Jason. For the rest of the day that man treated Jason with such respect and gratitude. Another man, Brad, testified of praying with a co-worker as they were working on the side of the highway. The man began to weep as he was overcome by the presence of God. Various other manifestations occurred as well. It was just an all around good evening of divine encounters. On Sunday we gave a call for salvation and many newcomers answered and were brought into Jesus one step program, out of darkness into His marvelous light. At the end of the service the altar was opened and many people came to just step into the river so to speak. One lady came forward and as she got close to the front she fell facedown and was still for over two hours in an encounter with the living God. Another lady testified to a powerful encounter with Jesus Christ as He began to reveal things to her regarding His desire to see the island of Maui awakened to welcome the outpouring of His Spirit. A woman on our worship team testified to witnessing to her boss who is an atheist. A young man who was a former drug user testified that he had some extra money on him and the first thing he thought to do was to buy drugs but then the Holy Spirit rose up in him and he thought, "That would be so disrespectful to my Lord, and after all He has done for me." He remains clean and sober and has been delivered from addiction. A Hospice company called us this week asking if we would go minister to the terminally ill cancer patients who are homebound. They had heard that we believe that God still does miracles. What an opportunity!

I write these things simply to remember and review them for myself. It's become a vital part of my life to celebrate what God has done and is doing. If you will celebrate what God is doing, you will find that you become the solution for what He hasn't done yet. When we celebrate the testimony of the Lord, more happens, the Gospel spreads, and the Kingdom advances. If you're searching for God's will for your life, the list is short. It's found in Matthew 10. As you go, preach, saying, "Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand." Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give." Well, Bill, should I be a missionary or should I start a career in the marketplace? Pick one, either is fine, but as you go, preach, saying, "Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand." Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give. That's nice, Bill, but should I live in a house or apartment and should I get married or stay single and..... Whatever, just pick a good one and as you go, preach, saying, "Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand." Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.

Yeah, I know, (people say) but it's God who does the healing. It's up to Him if He chooses to use me to do it. Well, sure. That's good theology I guess. He just didn't exactly say that in Matthew 10. Look at it. He didn't take the time to explain the theology behind it. He told us to do it as if we could. Whatever you do, wherever you work, however you serve in your church, make sure that as you go, preach, saying, "Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand." Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.

An outpouring of the Spirit of God continues in Maui. James, our sound-man is a chef at a local restaurant. He had a young man working for him who had suffered a heart attack at a young age. This man came to James last week saying he had chest pains and, knowing James was a Christian, asked him to pray for him. James laid hands on him and prayed and the pain (and fear) left. The man told James that he was feeling much better and gives the glory to God. Sunday morning, Chasity, a young lady in the church, came to the front row and began a beautiful dance during worship and as she did the Holy Spirit fell on her and she began to speak in tongues for the first time. She shared afterward that she realized that she had to go after it and when she did, God responded. How much are you missing because you're waiting for God to come to you? The God you know in the secret place is the God you'll represent in the public place.

The birthplace of bad theology is when leaders are pressured to give an explanation of a problem that God's not addressing. It's when people are facing disappointment and we provide an explanation to help people feel better about the moment instead of leaving them in discontentment so that they will actually wage a violent war against all that restrains them to find Kingdom solutions that do not dissipate. Let this be the cry of your heart. I don't want to compose answers that make me comfortable. I want to find things that take me into my destiny. I'm not going to lower the standard of Scripture to make me feel good about my present situation. I don't want to feel good about my present situation. To lower the standard of scripture to my level of experience is idolatry. It's to worship the pages of a book above the Spirit that breathes on the pages of the book.

Israel always seemed to end up in idolatry even though they SAW the manifest presence of God. How did this happen? The Bible is clear. They forgot the works of the Lord. When they forgot what they saw they lost the desire to see it again and the result was religious form without power which is idolatry. You cannot afford to lose awareness of the God who invades the impossible. You cannot afford to make decisions that represent the body of Christ based on human talent and resource alone. Much of what is called stewardship in the church today is simply fear disguised as wisdom. You will not do more with yourself than you will do with what you have. We had a young lady on outreach with us who I gave an assignment to. I handed her some money and told her to give it away. That was her only assignment that day. She looked for someone to give it to and couldn't find the right person. It couldn't just be anyone, she thought. It has to be someone who really needs it. Yet she couldn't ever seem to find the right one. Many people say, if only God would bless me with a large sum of money, I could do so much good with it. No you wouldn't. If you won't do good with the little you have, what makes you think you'll suddenly do good with much? Wasting resources is easy. Giving it away is difficult. Think about your life. Wasting time is easy. Giving time away is hard. But which holds the reward? Some of you reading this post have heard God calling to you a life of radical obedience that challenges your perceived notion of comfort. Your destiny is just on the other side of convenience. In other words, you'll have to step beyond convenience to find it.

Prophecy is a really huge deal to God yet there are alot of religious people who take issue against it. It is often said that prophecy is not for today, yet there is a danger in going there. Jesus said in John 5, you search the scriptures because you think in them is eternal life, but these are they which testify of Me and you're unwilling to come to Me. The scriptures are the testimony of Jesus and any revelation you get from the Scriptures that doesn't take you into an encounter with Jesus Christ only serves to make you more religious. Furthermore in Revelation 19:10 we're told that the testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of prophecy. So to say that prophecy isn't for today is not only to deny the testimony of Jesus but also to deny the vailidity of the word of God. Some will differentiate between the prophectic in the scriptures and the prophetic declaration of believers today calling the first infallable and the latter, "personal prophecy" and say that it's not of God. The scriptures are indeed infallable but can the Holy Spirit give me a word for you and you for another? Jesus said in John 16, I have so much I would like to say to you now but you can't bear it. So then there's more He wants to share with you. He then said, I'll send the Holy Spirit who will guide you into all truth. The believers were and are expected to be filled with the Spirit of God and the Spirit of God is not silent. Now He chooses to speak through His people to teach, train, exhort, comfort, encourage, reveal His plan and purpose, and to release the Kingdom in power. We release the kingdom through declaration.

Here's an example and, by the way, a year ago I would never have done this. I sit down by a man who is waiting for his ride. I ask if I can pray with him. He says no, he's not interested. We do begin to talk though and as we do I feel intense compassion for the depth of hurt in him and the numbers 10 and 14 come to mind, forcefully. So much so that it's distracting. I clear my throat and go with it. "There is a deep pain in you from 10 or maybe 14 years ago. Something happened that left your life scarred and God wants to heal your heart." He begins to weep and says, "My 14 year old son was killed 10 years ago in a hit and run accident. (long pause) I've been angry at God ever since." We cry together and when I ask if I can pray with him again he says yes. The manifest presence of the Spirit of God meets us there and he begins a new day and season in his life as a believer in Jesus Christ.

This week on outreach we're going to ask the Holy Spirit to do that for people we don't even know. God loves these His people and wants to reveal Himself to them. We're going to give God that opportunity. You give God room for His will to be done. I'll post testimonies later on this week and let you know how it went.

The postmodern church movement. "It's organic, earthy, neohippie, antichurch." Just what some cool friends of mine may be looking for. So they go today to a local postmodern gathering to soak in the vibe. Report comes back. The music put the mental in experimental, the paintings were interesting. The speaker announces that the meeting is going to be a (quote) crapshoot. I check my cool postmodern language guide to see if that's the new way to say we're being led by the Spirit. I get the impression it means unprepared. Some guy lays down in the aisle and falls asleep. Nice touch. Then this guy in the aisle rips a massive gastrointestinal expulsion. It reeks. We'd leave but he's blocking our way. Perhaps the people behind me think my gag reflex is a new form of worship. For your next communion service, I suggest some beano tablets. The rest of the gathering gives the impression that in order to belong here one must be comfortably lost. A passive anarchist. Anti leadership, anti order, and strangely, anti power. Perhaps they were hoping to access the power of God by denying the dreaded form of Godliness but sadly, it appears they're lacking both. When freedom in worship becomes a disguise for lack of direction, something's gone awry. No prayer for healing, no message from the Word of God, no invitation to follow Jesus Christ. All these are old fashioned and have been replaced with silent contemplation, readings from various books, and encouragement to give Jesus a whirl at some point in your life, whenever, no worries. Truth be told, this is just the closet Baptists taking the seeker movement to a whole new level of lukewarm. It's the evangelistic tool that sneaks up on the seeker. You may get saved, you may not. Chances are, you won't know either way. The beauty of the postmodern movement and it's manuals (Velvet Elvis and Blue Like Jazz) is that they've can describe in elaborate detail what they are not! They shun uniformity and embrace creative expression. What they can't seem to determine is who they are. (Are we Christians or are we followers of Christ?) If you're interested in starting a Postmodern church, there are some things you've got to know. Back up your quotes from the apostle Paul with a quote from Bono. Media is cool. Especially art house flicks. Profanity is acceptable as long as it's intelligent. Intellect is exalted. Dim lights, deep thoughts, acoustic guitars, and coffee. Coffee is coooool. In the postmodern movement you get to be both in the world and of the world. Not a bad deal. In the early days when the X files was cancelled, many postmoderns backslid into, well, virtually the same place they were last week.

Sigh... Perhaps this postmodern movement will eventually add the term "vegan" to it's arsenal of cool descriptive terms. That is, lacking meat.

Nevertheless, I have a word for the postmodern Pastors. In these days I believe that God is releasing a spirit of revelation over the church where we repent over our areas of great difference because we see Him as He is, speak His Word as He declares it, and are literally taught by the Spirit. This is Kingdom reality and it seems that postmodernism is poised for this kind of radical Spirit led existence, igniting a revival in America and bringing the reality of Jesus' power and glory into the lives of people. That is "...on earth as it is in Heaven." If that's the anointing you're aiming for, keep pressing in and expect opposition as you experience breakthrough. Chris Tomlin spoke well when he said that if the presence of God doesn't go with us, I don't want to go. At the same time if the presence of God is with us, the varied impressions of people don't matter a whole lot, for we're in the will of God even as their nails pierce our flesh.

NOTE: To give some background, this "story" actually happened at a popular postmodern church (with a pretty name) in a popular city (the live music capital of the world). Some friends went on a Sunday and called about it afterwards. I wrote this post in response to that event about a month ago, but waited to post it until I had a chance to email the Pastor (or narrator, or moderator, or whatever) and see what he had to say. It was very interesting and productive. I found out that he is hungry for something that he hasn't seen yet. That's what drives this movement to break out of tradition. The problem is that every new idea threatens to eventually become the tradition of man that makes the Word of God of no effect. The above post has the best lines from the email correspondence we had and since he reads my blog (yes, the Pastor of this church read this blog before I posted it and liked it) I wanted to make sure that I gave a cushion of time to it to test my heart on the matter. That is, am I merely writing in frustration to an event or is this something that continues to burn in me. The latter is true so, voila, it gets posted.

Postscript: I got some email asking what problem I had with Don Miller's best selling book, Blue Like Jazz. It's Don's gospel that's the issue. Don says, well here, Don go ahead and tell everyone how you view the Gospel of the Kingdom. “[The central message of Christ] is that man sinned against God and God gave the world over to man, and that if somebody wanted to be rescued out of that, if somebody for instance finds it all very empty, that Christ will rescue them if they want…” (page 124)
So Don has reduced the everlasting advancing Kingdom of God to, well, a divine timeshare for the disgruntled. Uh, I don't know, Don. Throw in a toaster and I may think about signing up.

Outreach yesterday and this morning was exciting. Yesterday we took a dozen young people out to do good and heal the oppressed and that's exactly what they did. I have never known a more tender yet bold group of students. I will truly miss them when they go to Borneo for missions next month. We were able to pray for many to be healed of various sicknesses from staff infection to arthritis in the knees to a man who said he needed joy. Everyone who allowed us to pray for them was touched by God in some way. One lady we met in front of the Buddhist temple had turned from Catholicism to Buddhism two months earlier because her son had died in a car accident and she was carrying offense toward God. We were able to minister to her and felt like God gave us a divine appointment to speak His heart to her and let her know that He is good and that He did not take her son. It was quite a moment. This morning the Pastors of upcountry met for breakfast where we spend our time recounting the testimony of what God is doing. By the end of that time you're ready to go take back some ground and punch holes in the darkness. So we took a couple of guitars and Pastor Dale Kreps from the Nazarene Church, Pastor Shannon Carrier, and I sat out in front of the library across from the Buddhist center in Makawao and sang worship songs to God as loud as our voices would allow. We had some great response from people driving by. We had the opportunity afterward to pray with a young man named Ben. It was just a great morning of giving God room to do His will. (Let that theology soak in for awhile.)

When Jesus said for us to pray, Thy will be done, He was talking about Himself. The instruction is an invitation to partner with Him to see that what is on His heart becomes what we are all about. Why would Jesus encourage us to pray for what He has already intended to do? Why would He ask us to join in an act of participation if our involvment meant nothing? It is His desire that you be the vessel through which His Spirit is poured out on all flesh. I cannot give Him a place to move in you but I can certainly give Him a place to move in me. If I give Him my flesh as an outlet, presenting my body as a living sacrifice, I then offer another person the opportunity to make room for Him as well. The promise in scripture is that the earth would be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord like the waters cover the sea. In keeping with the H20 analogy, surfs up!

The past week has been an incredible week of revival and miracles. I want to record these events so that I can review the works of God and also compose some thoughts that will likely contain questions that one day may have an answer.

On Sunday, our worship leader, Byron Purdy, was competing in the upcountry rodeo as his family has done for 56 years. In one event, something went wrong and a steer fell on his chest and then stomped on him a few times. By the time the ambulance got him loaded up to go to the hospital he was passed out from pain. The fear was of internal injuries along with or as a result of broken ribs. His eyes were rolling back in his head and from his head to his waist he was in bad condition. When they arrived at the hospital Byron's wife, Uilani, called and we prayed over the phone for him. Suddenly, as we were praying, he came to and the pain began to leave. They did the scans and tests to determine the extent of the injuries and gave him a clean bill of health. No internal injuries, no broken ribs, no reason to stay at the hospital. They had cut his clothes off of him so his wife went and got him a change of clothes from the car. He dressed and walked out of the hospital less than two hrs after he arrived. I helped him move heavy furniture this week.

Last week Wed there was a lovely Catholic lady who had diabetes for 30 years who requested prayer. Her left leg was swollen terribly and had been for quite some time and she was in great pain. As we prayed,,,,nothing happened. At least not that we could see. When she arrived home, the swelling was completely gone as was the pain. She went back to the doctor and received a report that she no longer has diabetes. Our study on Wed was on the last part of Mark 4 and the message was on the release of the Kingdom of heaven within you over the storms around you. Various prophecies and words went out and it was a good time.

At the close of the meeting, I felt that we needed to go down the hill and attend the revival taking place at the Pukalani Church of the Nazarene. Puka Naz (as it's called locally) is pastored by a dear friend and brother of mine, Pastor Dale. He had let us know that they were going to be setting up a tent and having an old fashioned revival meeting. What we didn't know was that the night before, the speaker had preached on the Holy Spirit and what resulted was a regular Acts 2 outpouring. A dozen of us from Grace showed up there after our meeting on Wed night and as we took our seats in the crowded tent, the speaker began his message. It was on Mark 4 and the message was on the release of the Kingdom of heaven within you over the storms around you. I was stunned. The Bible is a big book. This was not coincidence. Pastor Dale noticed that I had arrived and invited me to come and share. In 60 seconds I shared that we had just studied the same thing at our meeting a half hour earlier. The associate Pastor of Waipuna Chapel, a church two miles away from us, came up the aisle and said, "God wants to heal somebody right here." The altars opened and many people were healed and came to Jesus Christ. The revival was extended to Friday night.

In an unusual occurrence, an elder from a well established denominational church came forward on Thursday night responding to a call for repentance. He was tensed up and wound tight. This Christian man said he needed to be free from something dark inside of him. Pastor Dale (Nazarene) began to intercede for him. I can't even describe what happened after this but he was delivered from whatever demon was keeping him bound. Last night (Friday) he stood up and testified that he hadn't believed that a Christian could have anything like that but because of this belief he wasn't careful of what he gave a place in his life. He testified that he had opened his life up to anger by dwelling on people who had hurt him. He had also opened the door to a spirit of lust by dwelling on images and thoughts that he believed, as a Christian, would have no affect on him. He then testified that he now realized that even as a believer in Jesus Christ that it was ignorant to believe that he could give a place to darkness in his life and remain unaffected.

Whatever you have come to believe about healing, demons, deliverance, miracles, and signs that make you wonder, here's what I have come to. These are all like exit signs that point to the door of a greater reality like a map that leads you to the treasure of the presence of the Spirit of God. The miracles are meant to renew your mind to come to that place of supernatural faith in the God for whom nothing is impossible. The wonderful works of His hands are meant to lead to the richness of knowing the ways of His heart. While we have experienced miracles and healings in others this week, however, Traci and I have both been physically less than 100%. We have prayed and have not experienced the breakthrough in our bodies but internally we're both revived and soaking in the presence of God and the wonder of His love. The post below has taken on a deep meaning and challenge for me, to focus on what He is doing and not what He isn't doing. I can't let what I don't understand create means where I walk in offense toward God for what He hasn't done. Maybe you're in the same boat. Here's our challenge once again. If you focus on what He is doing, then you may become the answer for what He hasn't done yet. His power is still real and His grace is still sufficient.

Heaven is filled with everlasting love and peace and complete regard for the faithfulness, goodness, and power of God. Earth is filled with doubt, unbelief, offense, fear, and bitterness. You will always reflect the world that you're most aware of. Both worlds are real, but one is superior. The things we can see are temporal, but the things we can't see are eternal. Faith is anchored in what you can't see so then what you can't see is superior to what you can see for faith pleases God. I don't have faith because I understand. I understand because I have faith. (Heb 11) "Through faith we understand..." So then I can live life by discipline (understanding) or I can live life by passion (faith). If you live by discipline you'll be admired. If you live by passion you'll be contageous. Both are good but one is better. The difficult part of living the Christian life by discipline is that you have a hard time reproducing because to reproduce you must create others who are as disciplined as yourself for the right reasons. I would rather burn with passion. A life of passion is like a burning fire. When you tend to a fire you're only interested in protecting it and feeding it. When you live the Christian life with passion you only have time for that which fuels the fire. From the outside you may look disciplined but it's truly a reflection of the fire on the inside. All of this to say, I've been in a state of passion for God lately like at no time in my life. The way I stay passionate and encouraged inside is to focus on what God is doing, not what He isn't doing. The more outreach we do, the more contact I have with random strangers around me that results in advancing the Kingdom of God, the more I see the power of God demonstrated before my eyes, the more I burn. There's a fire that I can't ignore and in doing so I'm becoming more aware of and hungry for His world than I am for my own.

This picture was taken last week at Makena Beach. My little girl came and sat down and put her head on my shoulder. Traci knelt down to snap a picture and instincively Sara put her little "shaka" up in the air. This is the Hawaiian wave. It signifies friendship, peace, love, we're cool, all is well and good, and is also how we cut people off in traffic. A true multi-purpose hand gesture. In moments like these, sitting on the warm sand at the end of the day, I can't help but breathe in the presence of God. It doesn't just come in the good moments though. Last week I sat with a couple who moments earlier had given birth to their stillborn son. She was only five months along in her pregnancy. I was honored to officiate the service as the family wept with them. I had a vision in that moment of the two of them together in eternity with their son, and realized that I had just gained another motivation to live with passion for God for in eternity I will see them together and the deluge of joy that they will know, well earthly pleasures can't touch that. For all of my friends, both new and old, who have suffered loss, there is a deluge of joy in the kingdom to come that will erase all of the sorrow that you've ever known as if you had never known it. I can't wait to see that.

Bill and the Flying Turtles (Shot on Monday, June 18, 2007)

Did you know that the earth has been entrusted to you? (Psalm 115:16) Heaven is the Lords, but the earth He has entrusted to the children of men. The commission we have been given in this earth is to disciple nations. Does that seem impossible? In the story of the talents, the man who hid his talent in the earth says, "I knew you were a hard man, reaping where you have not sown and gathering where you haven't scattered seed, and I was afraid..." What he was saying is what many say in their heart to Jesus every day. "Look at all the impossible things you did. I can't do that. You want me to do that? I'm just a lowly servant. You're a hard act to follow. I'm afraid."
The truth is that you can do all things through Christ who gives you strength and we're called to invade the impossible because (1 John 4:17) as He is so are we in this world. The way we live that out is to do good and heal the oppressed. This is what Jesus commanded us to do. John 20:21 As the Father has sent me, so also I send you. In the commission is the anointing to achieve. That means that as you read that, and understand, and begin to do it, the anointing of the Holy Spirit will empower you to do what was previously thought impossible. John 14:17 The Spirit is both with you and in you.

I met a man who lives this out. His name is Earl and when we met, knowing he was a minister yet pastored no church, I said, "What's your ministry?" He looked at me funny and said, "The same as yours. Do good and heal the oppressed." Then I saw it. He took a group of young people to the mall. They bought some coffee and began to wander around. He spotted a young person who was working at a kiosk and began to talk to her. She shared that she was concerned because she didn't know what she was going to do with her life after graduation. He asked if they could pray for her career. She said yes and a couple of the young people stood with her and began to pray. The presence of God came upon her and she began to weep. A man walked by and noticed and recognized Earl and, knowing that Earl prays for the sick, said, "I have a heart condition. Would you pray for me?" Earl brought a young person to pray with the man. A young mother walked by clearly more than 8 months pregnant yet carrying a child in her arms as well. Earl was prompted to give her some money so he walked over and said, "Maam, the Lord has asked me to give you some money." She was moved and thanked him. She was clearly oppressed and tired. Earl and one of the young people prayed with her and the Spirit of God touched her and she ended up giving her life to Jesus Christ. (In an interesting twist, Earl asked her to wait because He hadn't given her enough money so he went to find a cash machine. She was amazed because she needed something for her child that she didn't have the money for and what he gave her met the need.)

We are all changing through the process of time and experience and what we become is directly related to what is deposited into our life. For example, Jesus, the Son of God, did no miracle until He received the anointing from God. We know little about His life up to that point except that He never sinned and therefore was the perfect sacrifice. The DNA of Jesus came about by what He received, (John 1:32 the Holy Spirit of God), what He submitted to, (John 5:19 the words and actions of the Father) and what He did (Acts 10:38 He went about doing good and healing the oppressed). As you walk through your day, pray that God will speak to you and commit to do and say what He asks or prompts in your heart to do. Give away some money. Offer to pray for the sick. Tell people that God loves them. Ask people if they know Jesus Christ. This is the most frightening and exciting lifestyle you can imagine. Some tasks will be easier than others. All will be challenging and all will be rewarding. In all that you do today, keep this objective before you. Today I am going to go about doing good and healing the oppressed.