Uprising

Are you like me? Do you find it easy to discount the activity of our enemy in this world because you don't want to be "one of those" who see "a demon behind every bush?" I still remember the woman who tried to cast "the demon of sniffles" out of me because I had a cold. I made up my mind right then and there that I didn't want to be like her. And I'm not. However, too often my pendulum may swing too far the other way; so far that I am a little naive to the enemy's role and scheme's in opposing the ways that God is calling me to partner with Him in advancing His Kingdom in the world today. Too often I forget what Bible writers took for granted: We live on a planet ruled by powers intent on blocking and perverting the will of God.

I don't want to be naive in regards to unseen opposition; and I do want to be involved in an uprising for the Kingdom of God in the world today. I really do. Therefore, I must pray. I must pray and ask the Lord to continue teaching me to pray. Karl Barth wrote, "To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorder of the world."

Perhaps there is even just one of you out there who like me has been tempted to over-react to someone who saw a demon behind every bush, or, in my case, up your nose. Let's encourage one another not to be naive to the reality that we do have an enemy who is intent on blocking and perverting the will of God in our life, the life of our family, the lives of the leaders and members in our congregation. Let's ask God this year to teach us more about prayer and to infuse us with a desire to actually do that - pray. Let's clasp our hands together and start an uprising for the Kingdom of God.

The Lord bless you (and me) today with a renewed longing to be aware of God's presence with you, to bow your knees and clasp your hands in His presence, and pray.

Dreading Something This Week?

I've been home these days, recovering from a bout with bronchitis (feeling better today). It's made me stay home, rest, and about all I've been able "to do" is read and pray (it's been painful to do that with beautiful days crying out, "this is the day the Lord has made, go forth and golf in it").

Anyway, I'm reading Philip Yancey's book on Prayer and a passage this morning struck a particular chord with me, and perhaps will with you. There have been times in the past when I have wrestled with something I needed to do, or a conversation with someone I needed to have; wrestled with it, and at times, dreaded it. I've used up energy putting off addressing whatever it is, all the while imagining how conversations and encounters would go in my head.

Yancey speaks to that kind of week when he writes:

"If I remember (and I blush at how often I forget), I can commit to God in advance a difficult letter I must answer, a thorny problem I must deal with in my writing, a nagging physical ailment, a phone call to a needy relative, a social engagement I dread. The very process of presenting these requests to God puts me in a different frame of mind before the event. And if I remember to pause afterward and reflect on what happened, often the traces of God appear, seen not by proof but by faith."

Got something this week you're not looking forward to? Dreading? Putting off? In times like these, let's encourage each other to take these things to God in prayer, even if we don't "feel" like it, even if we don't "feel full of faith" as we do so. It'll be interesting to see, looking back, how many "traces of God appear."

Love you all, and praying for you to not miss anything God has for you this week.

Repentance, Changed Thinking, and An Upgrade of Faith

So, I’m in Hebrews 11 during my Coffeetime with Jesus this morning. In verses 5-6 I read: “It was by faith Enoch was taken up to heaven without dying – he disappeared because God took him. For before he was taken up, he was known as a person who pleased God. And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to Him must believe that God exists and that He rewards those who sincerely seek Him.”

As I read the passage, this thought comes: “At the end of my days I would love to be known as one who pleased God. I would love for others to say, ‘In his life and the way he lived his life, Mike pleased God; he pleased the Lord by not settling for less than all God had for him.’ And in living this way, Mike brought glory to God and connected many people to Him.”

Then I read verses 32-33: “How much more do I need to say? It would take too long to recount the stories of the faith of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and all the prophets. By faith these people overthrew kingdoms, ruled with justice and received what God had promised them.”

Then this thought came: Lord God, by faith these beloved ones were pleasing to You and did not settle for less than all You had for them. I want to live that kind of life, with that kind of faith and I want You to do whatever You need to do in me so that I can.

Come Holy Spirit, and do whatever You need to do in me so You can do whatever You want to do in me. Come Holy Spirit and show me if there is any way I have been settling for less than all Father has for me.

In those places where I have been settling for less, grant me the gift of repentance where I need to repent; I want to repent Lord and strip off the weight of sin that slows me down and trips me up.

I want You to change the way I think where the way I think is not helpful to living a life pleasing to You. Change my thinking in every way where it does not agree with Your thoughts, with Your ways of thinking.

And increase, upgrade my faith that in all the days that are left for me in this world, so I might live a life that is pleasing to You; a life that brings glory to you; a life that does not settle for anything less than all You have for me. In Jesus’ name I pray this from my heart. Amen!

Stuggling in Prayer for Others

During my coffeetime with Jesus this morning I read of a brother in the Lord name Epaphras, a Colossian Christian in prison with the Apostle Paul. I am amazed at what Paul writes about him in Col 4:13. Listen to this:

"Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you, always struggling on your behalf in his prayers, that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God."

Amazing. Epaphras really believed the power of God could work through prayer. He believed this so much that he was willing to struggle on behalf of others so God's good purposes could be realized in their lives. Epaphras' prayer life was not one merely sweet with the aroma of God's good presence; his prayer life in part at least, was a struggle, a fight. And he was willing to fight on behalf of others so God could do whatever He needed to do them, so He could do whatever He wanted to do through them.

Please join in me in struggling in prayer on behalf of all who will attend the ARC Gathering, "The Empowering Presence." Join me in struggling in prayer so those God wants to attend this gathering - ARC member or guest - will in fact be there and will not give in to any temptation to not attend. Join me in struggling in prayer for those whose intellect may be getting in the way of receiving whatever God wants to do in their lives. Join me in struggling in prayer for those who need God to blow up their God boxes in any way so they can experience more fully who He is. Join me in struggling in prayer for those who need a breakthrough of any sort in their relationship with Holy Spirit. Join me in struggling in prayer for those who need any healing of old wounds that are still impacting their present in unhelpful ways - especially wounds from any charismatic heresy or practice they've experienced in the past.

Please join me in prayer. Let's fight the good fight. Let's be like Epaphras.

Thanks for your gift of time, and your willingness to struggle, on behalf of others (including ourselves) that we might encounter, experience, and receive whatever God has for us during these days we gather in Huntington Beach.

Praying for The ARC Gathering: The Empowering Presence

God's grace and peace to you all,

This morning during my coffeetime with Jesus I found myself moving into prayer for Lee Grady, Dave Householder, and all of our workshop presenters and worship leaders for the ARC Gathering on June 17-19. Please join me in prayer for these brothers and sisters, that they might hear a word of revelation from God as to what it is He wants to speak and do through them during the gathering. And please join me in prayer that God might be preparing our hearts to receive what He has for us.

As we move toward the gathering let us join in the prayer: "Lord, do whatever You need to do in us, so that You can do whatever You want to do through us." We pray for God's Spirit to fall upon us and be stirred up within us these days and to manifest His presence in whatever ways He knows we uniquely need. May He grace some of us with a spirit of repentance that turns us away from pursuits that feed our own ego. May He grace some of us with freedom from besetting sins that we have not been able to shake for years, even decades. May He grace some of us with healing for old wounds of the past that have still been influencing our present in unhealthy ways. May He grace some of us with a stirring up of His presence and power within us to enable us to serve Him even more effectively wherever He chooses to send us. May he nurture the growth of the fruit of His Spirit that we may become more and more like Jesus in who we are, not merely in what we know. Come Holy Spirit, come in power and in freedom and have Your way with us!

Let us pray that we all go home different than when we came. Let's pray that for ourselves and all those from our congregations who attend. Is there someone from your church body the Lord wants you to specifically invite to be there? Listen for the Lord's prompting and as He may bring someone to mind, dare to invite them. This gathering of course will not be the only place someone can have a God encounter. However, it may be God's appointed time and place for some; so, please listen and then act as you're prompted by God's Spirit. I remember experiencing this shortly after I came to The Master's Institute Seminary to join the staff. We were taking students on a missions trip to Mexico and I was prompted by a thought to invite a staff member to join the students on the trip. At the time, I wasn't sure if this was God or not, but the thought would not go away so in the end, I did invite the staff member. That staff person said yes, came on the trip, was powerfully impacted by the Holy Spirit, returned and became a student at MI and this Saturday, will graduate. Is there someone God is bringing to your mind, putting on your heart, to specifically invite and encourage to attend?

It will be fun to see what the Lord says to us, does in us, and then does through us as we go home to continue the ministry of Jesus in the world today through the power of Holy Spirit.

In God's Unshakable and Extravagant Love,

Mike

Grace for Waiting on God Shamelessly, Persistently and Expectantly

“Some in the ARC and some friends of the ARC are in need of my grace for the season of waiting they are in.” This seems to be a thought impressed on my mind this morning as I sit, have coffee with Jesus, and listen to birds in the trees outside my living room window chirping the good news of the coming of Spring.

Some of us are in a season of waiting on the Lord. Waiting on Him to bring the breakthrough we need in our own lives, the live of our families, or in the lives of our congregations. Some of us are still praying for family members we’ve seen no noticeable change in for years and waiting for the answer to those prayers is making us weary. Some of us are praying for people or issues in our congregations and there’s been no breakthrough; and there’s nothing we can see on the horizon that would indicate a breakthrough is imminent. Some of us are still praying for old ways of thinking and old habits that weigh us down to change and we keep falling back into them. Some of us are praying and waiting for words from the Lord that have been spoken over us, family members, or our congregations to finally come true.

I would not attempt in any way to invalidate the weariness, the frustration, the fatigue, and perhaps even the despair you’re feeling. I would not dare try to throw some superficial platitude your way to try to talk you out of how you may be feeling. But for all of us in the ARC, and those of you who are friends of the ARC, who may be in this season of waiting I would say: Please, don’t give up. Please don’t stop waiting with expectancy on the intervention of the Lord. Please, don’t settle for less than all God has for you; don’t settle because you may be in a season of fatigue and frustration. In a book I’m reading these days comes this encouragement for me, and perhaps for some of you:

“Prayer is about being made in the likeness of Christ. Conformed, reformed, transformed. There is simply no substitute for becoming like Christ other than being with Christ, and especially with Him in solitude and suffering and sorrow. And so prayer is about waiting. Prayer is the poetry of waiting. It is the language of those who know that what is now is not what should be and not what will be, if we wait.

Moses, Samuel, Nehemiah, Paul, David, they had to wait. They had to wait for people - stubborn people, lazy people, rebellious people, cowardly people. But mostly they had to wait for God. God, who had made known to them His purposes but was in no apparent hurry to accomplish them. God, who promised a land flowing with milk and honey but could hold up the journey for forty years in a land parched of water and with only one thing on the menu in order to work out some character issues in the people. God, who could depose King Saul and anoint David, but could then watch for the next dozen or more years as Saul clung to this throne and crown and hounded David into beggarliness and vagabondage.”

God’s grace empowers us. Because of God’s grace we are able to do that which we in our strength and abilities cannot do. Some of us may be in need God’s grace for waiting because that is the season we are in. Grace to wait shamelessly, persistently, and expectantly on Father God. That’s what Jesus tells us to be like in Luke 11 when He shares the story of the man who comes knocking on his friend’s door for some bread. The man is shameless in his knocking, he is persistent in his knocking and he is expectant that at some point his friend will arise and answer.

The disciples have asked Jesus to teach them to pray and Jesus gives them a model for prayer in verses 2-4 and then says, when you pray be like this man. Our waiting on the Lord is not merely a passive kind of waiting. Our waiting is an expectant waiting. Our Father is a good father and He will answer our prayer. Because He is a good father we can trust Him for the timing of the answer and the way the prayer is answered. Because He is a good father we can trust that during the season of waiting He may not only be at work in answering our prayer but in transforming us in ways we need to be transformed. He may be changing us in the very process of waiting to think, speak, and act more like Jesus.

Father God, give us Your grace to enable us to keep on praying, to keep on waiting, to keep on being conformed and transformed. In this process of praying and waiting, make us more like Jesus. Transform us to think, speak, and act more like Jesus. Transform our family member, our congregation to think, speak, and act more like Jesus. Then in due season, in the fullness of time, break through, Lord. Do not let us miss this. Do not let us settle in somewhere short of the breakthrough, content with something less than you have for us. Give us, we pray, Your empowering grace to pray, to wait in expectancy and move forward by faith in You, our good Father who does answer prayer and most certainly gives good gifts to His children (Luke 11).

Part 3 - For Mission, Not Merely Ministry

This is part 3 in answering the question: Why should I attend an ARC Gathering on the Empowering Presence of the Holy Spirit this year? Why should you and I attend? To stir one another to lives of mission, not merely ministry. To be filled afresh with the presence and power of Holy Spirit who can increase our effectiveness for both.

As I write this I am on vacation with my wife, Debi. We’ve been graced with the gift of a condo by some friends from a former parish. It’s on the third floor and overlooks Manzanillo Bay in Mexico. This morning as I have my coffeetime with Jesus, I find myself writing the following in my journal:

“I’m on the balcony in Manzanillo, strong cup of Sumatra coffee on the table beside me. The waves are crashing on the beach below as I read O. Hallesby’s book, Prayer. I find myself beginning to pray Matthew 9:37-38 about sending workers into the harvest based on something Hallesby wrote in his book. I’m praying for God to use the ARC to send workers into the harvest to reach those not yet present. I’m praying that none who are called into the harvest will remain home. I’m praying that God uses the ARC to send us, as lovers of God to intentionally love those not yet present. I’m praying God sends us into the world with a passion for lost souls…

…A passion for lost souls. Are we passionate for the salvation of the lost? I am theologically. I used to be practically. Now, most of my time is spent in ministry to those already present. Nothing wrong with that, unless it’s at the expense of rationalizing away reaching out to lost souls. Is there a passion for lost souls within us? Have we settled into caring for those already present at the cost of those not yet present? Oh God, make me, make the ARC passionate for lost souls. Make us passionate for mission, not merely ministry. Give us a longing to go where the lost are already gathered to love them you’re your unshakable and extravagant love. Give us Your heart for those not yet present.

I’m reminded this morning of the words of theologian and friend, Ray Anderson: ‘Those who are gathered around the meal of Christ must arise with the mission of Christ burning in their hearts. We sup with Christ in order to run with Him. The church needs to unleash her members and become a sending church rather than a gathering one.’ I’m reminded of Acts 4:29-32: ‘Now, o Lord, hear their threats, and give us, Your servants, great boldness in preaching Your word. Stretch out Your hand with healing power; may miraculous signs and wonders be done through the name of Your holy servant, Jesus.’ After this prayer, the meeting place shook, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. Then they preached the word of God with boldness.’”

Why attend one of the ARC gatherings this year? It may be one place where we can all gather in the same place at the same time as the disciples in Acts 4 were and cry out to God. Cry out for a passion for lost souls. Cry out for a filling of the Holy Spirit that will stir that passion within us. Cry out for a filling of the Holy Spirit that gives us a holy boldness and enables us to proclaim and demonstrate the Word of God with genuine power from on high. Oh God, use us for mission, not merely for ministry. Oh God, cause us to rise from the table with Your mission burning in our hearts so powerfully that we cannot remain within the walls of our churches and homes. Oh God, fill us afresh with Your Spirit. Give us a holy boldness. Impart to us an authentic experience of Your power for mission, not merely ministry.