So tonight I went out on our Friday night outreach at church. I will preface what I say with being glad that I went, so don't take this the wrong way. It started out as our group split into the specific outreach that we would be going on, followed by breaking our Treasure Hunt group into smaller teams. Soon after several of the students began barking at each other talking about who was more anointed and would see more people get saved tonight. Although I know they weren't being completely serious about their arguing, it still annoyed me that this was even happening. We should be encouraging one another, not tearing each other down! Other than asking them to get along I stayed out of it because I did not want to be included in it.
As one group left someone stated to me that while my group is still "stuggling" to fill out our treasure maps with what God was showing us, they were going to be out winning souls. Then repeatedly as they left they shouted back to me that they were going to see more people get saved than my group. Now I know that this person has a sarcastic sense of humor, but do we really need to throw competition into the church as though it is a rivarly game in college football? I think not.
Anyway, it was a much different dynamic this week. One guy I didn't know at all and two other guys could have been leading groups. We went to Safeway and couldn't seem to find anyone on our lists. After a stop at Walgreens in which two of our guys prayed for a missionary from Sudan we headed off to get gas and then go downtown. As we got near, the guys wanted to stop at the Safeway that we were passing so I pulled in. After walking around for a minute some of the guys spot some people. One guy starts to pray for a lady and as he does I feel something in my right ear that had caused me to write down "deafness - right ear" on my paper when we were at the church. So after he is done I ask her if she has any problems with her ear and she does! She had gotten punched in the ear and it damaged her ear drum. C'mon God! Her hair was covering up her ear and she wasn't wearing a hearing aid so I never would have known!
I was getting really tired and so I was definitely ready to go but so when we got back to the church I decided to go soak and then read some at the prayer house. I am glad I did. I read some out of a book called "The New Mystics" by John Crowder. It was just really inspiring me to go after God and change the world through the gospel of power with demonstration of signs and wonders. Then on the way home I got to thinking about one of the dreams I have which is to see complete transformation of our country's biggest cities. I just began seeing myself doing power evangelism in Manhattan as the beginning work of seeing New York City won for the Kingdom. Oh was it beautiful! We were feeding the poor and homeless as well as seeing multitudes saved, healed, and delivered. I couldn't help but get excited to read that John Alexander Dowie saw the city of Chicago get transformed completely! And I can go beyond what he did! I can't wait!
Saturday, April 14, 2007
Friday, April 13, 2007
Only believe
"If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer." - Matthew 21:22
Recently I have been on a journey of asking God for wisdom. Some of it was evident in my last post about raising the dead, but even more so I have really been seeking the Lord in the area of healing. I don't really know why it came up, actually now that I say that I know exactly why it came up, I am praying fervently for a friend of mine who has been a quadrapalegic for 36 years to be healed.
This next part could be "That ain't right: Part 2" which I will probably not get around to because I hate saying things that sound like I am complaining. Anyway, I was talking to him the other day and found out that his insurance is saying that some of the medical supplies that he needs are not necessary. Now if you know me, you know that I am not all for the government just handing away money to people who don't want to work. Additionally I support President Bush and will not slander him for any decisions he has made. My friend however does not mind voicing his opinion about the President and saying how instead of throwing billions of dollars into the war, the government should instead be helping the poor in its own country. While I totally understnad that it isn't the job of the government to fix every problem, I couldn't help but understand that taking the money that has been spent on the war in Iraq and putting it towards helping the poor and elderly would have great benefits for those people.
Anyway, I say all that to get to my point that I want to have a better understanding of God and anything else that would help bring healing to people that will otherwise continue to suffer. I don't know how much longer my friend will live. He is getting old and I am sure that his health isn't getting better due to the condition of his body. It made me think of the revivalists who have moved in healing in the past such as John G. Lake. Oftentimes, it was a struggle for healing with someone they were close to that propelled them into a greater healing anointing.
I see this current struggle as that for me. I can visualize the future and multitudes of people getting healed. I know that it is coming so when I pray it is easy to believe for it. And since I know that it is for me, I know that like Mary the mother of Jesus, I can ask for it now. I can ask God to get me ready for it now. I can ask God to teach me how to pray. By dreaming with God I am no longer bound by my worries of life but rather have my sights set on what God is doing. It is easier to embrace the process when you have a vision of the finish line. Grab hold of what God has shown you and don't let go. Train yourself so that you can do the best that you can and then run your race with your eye on the prize.
Recently I have been on a journey of asking God for wisdom. Some of it was evident in my last post about raising the dead, but even more so I have really been seeking the Lord in the area of healing. I don't really know why it came up, actually now that I say that I know exactly why it came up, I am praying fervently for a friend of mine who has been a quadrapalegic for 36 years to be healed.
This next part could be "That ain't right: Part 2" which I will probably not get around to because I hate saying things that sound like I am complaining. Anyway, I was talking to him the other day and found out that his insurance is saying that some of the medical supplies that he needs are not necessary. Now if you know me, you know that I am not all for the government just handing away money to people who don't want to work. Additionally I support President Bush and will not slander him for any decisions he has made. My friend however does not mind voicing his opinion about the President and saying how instead of throwing billions of dollars into the war, the government should instead be helping the poor in its own country. While I totally understnad that it isn't the job of the government to fix every problem, I couldn't help but understand that taking the money that has been spent on the war in Iraq and putting it towards helping the poor and elderly would have great benefits for those people.
Anyway, I say all that to get to my point that I want to have a better understanding of God and anything else that would help bring healing to people that will otherwise continue to suffer. I don't know how much longer my friend will live. He is getting old and I am sure that his health isn't getting better due to the condition of his body. It made me think of the revivalists who have moved in healing in the past such as John G. Lake. Oftentimes, it was a struggle for healing with someone they were close to that propelled them into a greater healing anointing.
I see this current struggle as that for me. I can visualize the future and multitudes of people getting healed. I know that it is coming so when I pray it is easy to believe for it. And since I know that it is for me, I know that like Mary the mother of Jesus, I can ask for it now. I can ask God to get me ready for it now. I can ask God to teach me how to pray. By dreaming with God I am no longer bound by my worries of life but rather have my sights set on what God is doing. It is easier to embrace the process when you have a vision of the finish line. Grab hold of what God has shown you and don't let go. Train yourself so that you can do the best that you can and then run your race with your eye on the prize.
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Thoughts to ponder: Raising the dead
So I have been thinking about raising the dead more than normal and came across a question on an assignment for school where the topic came up. Here is my response:
"Jesus didn't command us to prophesy, yet we all can, but we are not all prophets. Jesus commanded us to heal the sick, but some will have a gift of healing, perhaps like John G. Lake, who saw hundreds of thousands of people get healed. I'm not sure how that works when you consider that we were also commanded to raise the dead. Would the person with the gift of healing just raise the dead more often?"
Just a thought.
David Hogan's ministry in Mexico has raised 300 people (approx.) from the dead. However, they have tried to raise approxiamately 2,300 people from the dead. That is a 13% success rate. For each person they raise from the dead it takes on average between 6-8 hours of prayer. So assuming that they don't spend any more time praying for the peope that don't get raised from the dead than the people that do (which I am sure they probably keep praying for the people), they spend 40-54 hours praying for people that don't get raised from the dead between times when they are successful in raising the dead. Don't like the 13% success rate? In baseball you wouldn't even make a minor league team if you batted .130 unless you are a pitcher. However when you think that they have raised 300 people from the dead and I have never done it, their 13% success rate looks pretty good.
We were commanded to raise the dead.
When you are raising someone from the dead do they have the choice of whether to come back or not?
Just to clarify, Jesus said to raise the dead, not to pray for the dead.
I am now 0 for 1 in raising the dead.
I realized that if I did raise the dead I would think that I have somehow arrived in that I have reached some cool spiritual level with God that He allowed me to raise the dead. WRONG!
We would probably see more people raised from the dead if people like myself stopped thinking that we are at a high level of spiritual maturity because it happened through us. This is probably also true when applied to creative miracles and other "great" miracles that many people would not have faith for.
"Jesus didn't command us to prophesy, yet we all can, but we are not all prophets. Jesus commanded us to heal the sick, but some will have a gift of healing, perhaps like John G. Lake, who saw hundreds of thousands of people get healed. I'm not sure how that works when you consider that we were also commanded to raise the dead. Would the person with the gift of healing just raise the dead more often?"
Just a thought.
David Hogan's ministry in Mexico has raised 300 people (approx.) from the dead. However, they have tried to raise approxiamately 2,300 people from the dead. That is a 13% success rate. For each person they raise from the dead it takes on average between 6-8 hours of prayer. So assuming that they don't spend any more time praying for the peope that don't get raised from the dead than the people that do (which I am sure they probably keep praying for the people), they spend 40-54 hours praying for people that don't get raised from the dead between times when they are successful in raising the dead. Don't like the 13% success rate? In baseball you wouldn't even make a minor league team if you batted .130 unless you are a pitcher. However when you think that they have raised 300 people from the dead and I have never done it, their 13% success rate looks pretty good.
We were commanded to raise the dead.
When you are raising someone from the dead do they have the choice of whether to come back or not?
Just to clarify, Jesus said to raise the dead, not to pray for the dead.
I am now 0 for 1 in raising the dead.
I realized that if I did raise the dead I would think that I have somehow arrived in that I have reached some cool spiritual level with God that He allowed me to raise the dead. WRONG!
We would probably see more people raised from the dead if people like myself stopped thinking that we are at a high level of spiritual maturity because it happened through us. This is probably also true when applied to creative miracles and other "great" miracles that many people would not have faith for.
Saturday, April 7, 2007
That Ain't Right (Part 1)
As I talked with my paralyzed friend the other day I realized how my fight to see the disabled healed carries so much more weight than I realized. I don’t really know how many people there are in the world who are significantly suffering due to health problems but it has to be hundreds of millions if not billions. It is so easy when faced with such a big problem to just throw ones hands up in the air in disgust not even knowing where to start.
Earlier this week I decided that I needed to start over in my quest to right what the devil has made wrong. I am tired of offering sympathy to those who are suffering. Although I have been told that I am full of compassion for others, the difference between it and sympathy is doing something about it. So I am gonna do something about the suffering that is going on in the world.
I don’t know what it will look like, but I know that I can no longer sit back and wait, merely hoping that it will happen. What is it? God’s spirit being poured out on me in such a way that the blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk and the gospel is preached to the poor. In the past I would have just thought that it would look like crusades in as many countries as was feasible, but today I realized that I can’t afford to end up like any past revivalist who died without passing the baton to the next generation of leaders, equipping the body of Christ to do the same, and making sure that people realized that the power was from God and not from them.
Prayer is the backbone of ministry and yet that seems to be one of the first things to go when life becomes busy. I am determined to make sure that my bank account is full so that when I need to make a big withdrawal, I have enough in my account to cover it time and time again. As I prayed I believed that God was going to release his healing anointing to heal my friend as well as the countless others that I will come across in my time on earth.
Remember how Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness? Then I am sure you also remember that the prayers of the righteous man are powerful and effective.
There comes a time when an injustice goes too far. That time is now. What would you do if your home was completely destroyed by a natural disaster and you had no shelter, only the clothes on your back (if you were lucky), you have no source of food and you haven’t eaten in weeks? In Mozambique, severe flooding has displaced hundreds of thousands of people and without government aid as we are fortunate to have in the United States, many people are suffering and facing horrible conditions.
The above picture is of a refugee camp where the shelters are sticks with grass over them. That camp was visited by Iris Ministries and was brought food for its 6,000 refugees. Iris Ministries is actually a great example of equipping the body of Christ, raising up leaders, and preaching the Gospel to the poor. And I shouldn’t neglect mentioning that through their ministry the blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk, and the dead are raised!
Earlier this week I decided that I needed to start over in my quest to right what the devil has made wrong. I am tired of offering sympathy to those who are suffering. Although I have been told that I am full of compassion for others, the difference between it and sympathy is doing something about it. So I am gonna do something about the suffering that is going on in the world.
I don’t know what it will look like, but I know that I can no longer sit back and wait, merely hoping that it will happen. What is it? God’s spirit being poured out on me in such a way that the blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk and the gospel is preached to the poor. In the past I would have just thought that it would look like crusades in as many countries as was feasible, but today I realized that I can’t afford to end up like any past revivalist who died without passing the baton to the next generation of leaders, equipping the body of Christ to do the same, and making sure that people realized that the power was from God and not from them.
Prayer is the backbone of ministry and yet that seems to be one of the first things to go when life becomes busy. I am determined to make sure that my bank account is full so that when I need to make a big withdrawal, I have enough in my account to cover it time and time again. As I prayed I believed that God was going to release his healing anointing to heal my friend as well as the countless others that I will come across in my time on earth.
Remember how Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness? Then I am sure you also remember that the prayers of the righteous man are powerful and effective.
There comes a time when an injustice goes too far. That time is now. What would you do if your home was completely destroyed by a natural disaster and you had no shelter, only the clothes on your back (if you were lucky), you have no source of food and you haven’t eaten in weeks? In Mozambique, severe flooding has displaced hundreds of thousands of people and without government aid as we are fortunate to have in the United States, many people are suffering and facing horrible conditions.
The above picture is of a refugee camp where the shelters are sticks with grass over them. That camp was visited by Iris Ministries and was brought food for its 6,000 refugees. Iris Ministries is actually a great example of equipping the body of Christ, raising up leaders, and preaching the Gospel to the poor. And I shouldn’t neglect mentioning that through their ministry the blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk, and the dead are raised!
Friday, April 6, 2007
Gettin' out of the box
So today I got out a little bit. It all started this morning when I decided that the crowded prayer chapel was not the place for me to pray in tongues. While I was outside I felt that God impressing upon me that I should get back to doing outreach. It then occurred to me that when I had been getting words of knowledge frequently back at the beginning of winter I had been doing outreach a lot. Recently I haven't been going out to pray for people and haven't been getting many words in other times either. Not to say that God took them away, but there is definitely something about stewarding what you have properly so that you keep it.
So I went to go on our Friday night outreach instead of staying in the service where Lance Wallnau was apparently awesome. Anyway, other than the outreach pastor I was the only person from the church that had done outreach before. So I led a team of 2 young ladies and after soaking in the prayer house - God's presence is so awesome - we headed over to the Sundial Bridge where I saw a picture of a woman in a wheelchair.
As we were walking I spotted a woman wearing a neck brace so I stopped and started conversation. After they asked us a few questions about how we would be praying and whether we believed she would be healed, they allowed us to pray for her. She was somewhat surprised that some of the pain in her neck and leg left, but when I asked if we could pray again she said that one time was enough. One of the men actually said how he was so happy to see us out there praying for people. We ended up talking with them for a few minutes and they all thanked us as we parted ways, much different from their skeptical questioning of us when we met just a few minutes earlier.
We walked a little bit further and saw a woman in a wheelchair. They were much more receptive and immediately said that it would be ok for us to pray for her foot. I totally forgot to ask her if it felt different as we got to talking about other things, which is easy to do when people notice my Brasil shirt, the accent of our Australian teenager, and find out our other person is from Virginia. Again, we talked for several minutes and they showed their gratefulness for us praying for them.
As we were walking back towards the car I stopped to pray for a rougher looking man who had a cane. He too was very open for prayer and seemed as though it was quite normal for a stranger to offer prayer in public for healing. Although he didn't notice any difference he too was encouraged and as we parted ways his wife, who was probably 40 feet away at this point, turned around to thank us for praying. After we got off the bridge the girl from Australia (only 16 years old!) thought that we should go to In-n-Out. So off we went. As we drove off I noticed that the other team had just arrived but I decided to just keep driving.
As soon as we got to In-n-Out a man and woman were approaching their car to leave. The man was limping so I asked him what was going on. He said that he was sore from shopping all day but then eventually said that he has been struggling with it for years and can only take certain construction jobs because of it since he can't stay on his feet. He also said how eager he was for God to heal him and how he is praying constantly for it. Although he didn't feel anything the Australian girl (I know her name, I'm just not saying it) said that she felt God saying that he will be completely healed in the next week. Then he mentioned how the woman had things she needed prayer for as well. So we prayed for her and she began to cry. She didn't notice any difference but I believe that they both have the faith to be healed, and they certainly were encouraged by God. Praise the Lord that He put us exactly where we needed to be to bring encouragement to people who needed it!
On Tuesday night as I had been praying I felt that I should start really going after the healing for people that I have been praying for. It was time for something to happen and as Smith Wigglesworth would say, "if God isn't moving, I'll move Him." I felt that I should call a friend who is quadriplegic every day and pray for him. So the next day when I started praying for him I just got his voicemail. Yesterday he called me to say he had been in either the hospital or with doctors all day concerning problems that had come from surgery after the accident that left him paralyzed. These complications forced him to retire from working about 20 years ago. Needless to say, now is the time!
So I went to go on our Friday night outreach instead of staying in the service where Lance Wallnau was apparently awesome. Anyway, other than the outreach pastor I was the only person from the church that had done outreach before. So I led a team of 2 young ladies and after soaking in the prayer house - God's presence is so awesome - we headed over to the Sundial Bridge where I saw a picture of a woman in a wheelchair.
As we were walking I spotted a woman wearing a neck brace so I stopped and started conversation. After they asked us a few questions about how we would be praying and whether we believed she would be healed, they allowed us to pray for her. She was somewhat surprised that some of the pain in her neck and leg left, but when I asked if we could pray again she said that one time was enough. One of the men actually said how he was so happy to see us out there praying for people. We ended up talking with them for a few minutes and they all thanked us as we parted ways, much different from their skeptical questioning of us when we met just a few minutes earlier.
We walked a little bit further and saw a woman in a wheelchair. They were much more receptive and immediately said that it would be ok for us to pray for her foot. I totally forgot to ask her if it felt different as we got to talking about other things, which is easy to do when people notice my Brasil shirt, the accent of our Australian teenager, and find out our other person is from Virginia. Again, we talked for several minutes and they showed their gratefulness for us praying for them.
As we were walking back towards the car I stopped to pray for a rougher looking man who had a cane. He too was very open for prayer and seemed as though it was quite normal for a stranger to offer prayer in public for healing. Although he didn't notice any difference he too was encouraged and as we parted ways his wife, who was probably 40 feet away at this point, turned around to thank us for praying. After we got off the bridge the girl from Australia (only 16 years old!) thought that we should go to In-n-Out. So off we went. As we drove off I noticed that the other team had just arrived but I decided to just keep driving.
As soon as we got to In-n-Out a man and woman were approaching their car to leave. The man was limping so I asked him what was going on. He said that he was sore from shopping all day but then eventually said that he has been struggling with it for years and can only take certain construction jobs because of it since he can't stay on his feet. He also said how eager he was for God to heal him and how he is praying constantly for it. Although he didn't feel anything the Australian girl (I know her name, I'm just not saying it) said that she felt God saying that he will be completely healed in the next week. Then he mentioned how the woman had things she needed prayer for as well. So we prayed for her and she began to cry. She didn't notice any difference but I believe that they both have the faith to be healed, and they certainly were encouraged by God. Praise the Lord that He put us exactly where we needed to be to bring encouragement to people who needed it!
On Tuesday night as I had been praying I felt that I should start really going after the healing for people that I have been praying for. It was time for something to happen and as Smith Wigglesworth would say, "if God isn't moving, I'll move Him." I felt that I should call a friend who is quadriplegic every day and pray for him. So the next day when I started praying for him I just got his voicemail. Yesterday he called me to say he had been in either the hospital or with doctors all day concerning problems that had come from surgery after the accident that left him paralyzed. These complications forced him to retire from working about 20 years ago. Needless to say, now is the time!
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
All the Tools
So I am eating my Nature Valley crunchy granola bar and I notice a few logos on the wrapper. This is the official energy bar of the PGA Tour and also of the US Ski Team.
I can’t believe that I have the same exact resources as Olympic Skiers and Golfing greats such as Tiger Woods. I couldn’t help but wonder why I don’t hit a golf ball as far as Tiger or why I can’t ski nearly as well as Johnny Mosley.
Then it occurred to me that I must steward the resources that I have and put them to work. Similarly, it is not enough to have really good golf clubs, you need to use them the right way. I could use the clubs of any person on the PGA tour and I would not suddenly become that person.
In the same way we have all the tools in the kingdom but if we don’t steward them, then they won’t produce the same fruit as the “professionals”. We must steward the resources and put them to practice until they produce the desired fruit.
Why am I not good at golf or at skiing? I don’t do it very often. Last summer I played more holes than I have in my entire life, and that was still under three full rounds (rained out one time). I didn’t expect to be good after my few golfing days, yet sometimes we expect to be working in consistent signs and wonders with little experience.
My encouragement is this: we have all the tools we need to succeed, but we must put those tools to work and steward the gift. We must experiment with what works and what doesn’t and become “students of the game”.
Keep going after it and remember that Tiger Woods wasn’t the outstanding player he is now the first time he stepped on a golf course.
I can’t believe that I have the same exact resources as Olympic Skiers and Golfing greats such as Tiger Woods. I couldn’t help but wonder why I don’t hit a golf ball as far as Tiger or why I can’t ski nearly as well as Johnny Mosley.
Then it occurred to me that I must steward the resources that I have and put them to work. Similarly, it is not enough to have really good golf clubs, you need to use them the right way. I could use the clubs of any person on the PGA tour and I would not suddenly become that person.
In the same way we have all the tools in the kingdom but if we don’t steward them, then they won’t produce the same fruit as the “professionals”. We must steward the resources and put them to practice until they produce the desired fruit.
Why am I not good at golf or at skiing? I don’t do it very often. Last summer I played more holes than I have in my entire life, and that was still under three full rounds (rained out one time). I didn’t expect to be good after my few golfing days, yet sometimes we expect to be working in consistent signs and wonders with little experience.
My encouragement is this: we have all the tools we need to succeed, but we must put those tools to work and steward the gift. We must experiment with what works and what doesn’t and become “students of the game”.
Keep going after it and remember that Tiger Woods wasn’t the outstanding player he is now the first time he stepped on a golf course.
Monday, April 2, 2007
REWARD!
This morning when I went downstairs to enjoy a delicious Nature Valley bar for breakfast I noticed through the drapes covering our kitchen window that my car had something written on it. Upon further inspection I found that it had a lot written on it.
The crime scene:
If you have information regarding this crime please comment and if your information is accurate you may be eligible for a reward of one (1) packet of Ramen Noodles. That's right. Ramen Noodles. Good stuff. :)
The crime scene:
If you have information regarding this crime please comment and if your information is accurate you may be eligible for a reward of one (1) packet of Ramen Noodles. That's right. Ramen Noodles. Good stuff. :)
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