General

Hidden Wisdom

November 5, 2014

There is a threshold that has been sought by cultures and generations. It is the threshold that taps the resources of God’s glory. It is the chasm that is bridged when the limitations of the natural are superseded by the supernatural. When released, dramatic change results. No power on earth can stand against it. Yet, not unlike the time of the tower of Babel, cultures and generations possess a power, blinded against God, that transcends the sum of it parts. This power ties into the dynamic of the tree of knowledge that was perverted in the garden. Counterfeits have abounded. It is why God told Abraham to leave his family and the country of Ur, the land of the Chaldeans where sorcery had its roots. God’s glory and the release of His hidden wisdom will not abide or compromise with either the occult or pop wisdom. It operates on a spiritual level far beyond the counterfeits and illusions of a watered-down status quo. This threshold must be overcome in God to see the true reality of God operating. When this takes place, it releases what we call revival or the ongoing manifest Presence of God among a people.

Read the full article →

Fear of God

September 29, 2014

While the fear of the Lord is what lays the foundation for knowing the ways of God, it is also the thread of preparedness and maturity defining a stable and purposeful walk with Him. It is the factor that enables the finish to go well. It is the glue for unity and stability. It establishes the wall of fire, the equalizer and protection for God’s people that has no parallel. It is the standard for enduring relationships, along with being the crux for God’s criterion for leadership. Even more so, the fear of the Lord is bedrock for times of crisis and the igniter for what we describe as revival. The reality of God is gaining critical mass. The world is looking for the reality of God being demonstrated — through His people. We’ve entered a time Jesus referred to in Matthew 24 as the “beginning of sorrows.” It is approaching a time noted in Luke 21 when men’s hearts will fail due to fear. The determining factor for what’s needed will not be a perfect doctrine, eloquent sermons or some super-elite band of hyper-religious. Nothing short of God’s presence and power will suffice. The fear Jesus spoke of in Matthew 24 and Luke 21 is totally different from the fear of God. It is the response of those whose hearts do not know God and those whose hearts are divided toward him. Before his ordeal, Job knew God and His ways, in his head. When he emerged, he truly knew God and his ways in his heart. The united heart changes everything.
“I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You. Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” Job 42:5-6
God has called those known by His Name to be standard-bearers and agents of change. In today’s chaotic and turbulent world, this task is going to take something more. We are to actuate a new dimension, the spiritual climate that establishes God’s Kingdom rule.

Read the full article →

Unlocked

August 12, 2014

One of the biggest, if not the biggest gap in the Church today — is the need for something practical and engaging, to enable each believer to WALK OUT A CALL OF GOD. We’ve emerged at a change of generations with a “me-too” orientation. We’ve confused the tactical with the strategic. We’ve made models out of what may have been simply successful stepping stones for a time, stepping stones never intended as the standard or the model to be followed. Short-sighted misuse of tactical means for strategic ends can impede the unlocking and passage into new gateways. Volunteerism, for example, is not an end in itself, but rather the steps in the path toward its adherents correctly identifying and then being prepared for release to walk out their own callings. Mimicking success, instead of following the move of the Spirit, of the cloud by day and the fire by night, can be a trap. It impedes maturity within the Body needed to rightly discern and engage in God’s strategies for the times. The blind-spot at the core of such subtle snares is akin to the downfall of Shebna, of becoming in-bred and self-serving. This deception short-circuits the big-picture purposes of the Spirit. The momentum for this misaligned zeal is driven by the overuse or misapplication of early-stage successes and priorities. This in-bred myopia can breed lone-ranger congregations. Progressively misaligned priorities result in a failure to interact with, pray with and work together with other believers within the surrounding community. It waters down the important factor of how we seek the Lord together. It results in falling short in mobilizing God’s people to discern and walk out the calling of God for the day at hand. In-bred myopia masks the keys needed to unlock the strategies needed to avoid the mix between the collisions taking place due to the “me-too” and “Shebna empire,” lone-ranger, short-sighted expenditures of energy and anointing.

Read the full article →

Unbroken

August 2, 2014

The story of Louie Zamperini is a story of the colliding — between a life held in the bondage of masks and the superficial — and the reality that only God can provide and bring into wholeness. It is a story of facing your fears. It is a story of becoming a true God-pleaser and embracing reality. We live in a world of illusions. What we refer to as smoking mirrors is employed at the highest levels. The perception has been confused with the reality. Masks define identities. Superficialities drive priorities. Leadership is mistaken for who is in charge. Jesus came to reset the way we look at things. He came to unmask the counterfeit. He unveiled the realities, which redefine the priorities. There’s a major difference between brokenness and humility. Humility is the process of taking the steps to remove the masks and face the fears that the evil one uses in paths to brokenness. In this upside-down world, the illusions warp true reality with the distortions intent on seducing the multitudes into pathways of destruction. Yet, from the beginning, God has had a design for His people. Jesus described this design and raised the bar for what God gave to His covenant people. At its core is the purpose, which God gave to Abraham in calling him out of the world, that he might “be blessed to be a blessing.” The model of economic community with God at helm also came from the way Abraham and then Moses organized community, which in effect, is as a light shining on a hill. He provided the foundations to operate as a culture within a culture, one that makes a difference.

Read the full article →

Touching the Depths

July 14, 2014

For communities of believers bridging the gap with the broader community, one of the most effective strategies to maintain this balance and to release this anointing involves food. Throughout the Bible are spiritually significant instances of eating together or of the provision of being fed. The practice has involved times of settling differences, making peace and establishing agreements. Similarly, are the instances in which God’s people are the catalysts of provision when the world encounters famine and judgment (Isaac, Joseph). In the same fashion, the biblical mandates of the feast-days have their foundations in God’s people coming together and eating, as they are spiritually be refreshed and strengthened. These are God’s strategies that give opportunity for His presence. Jesus’ time with His disciples repeatedly describes significant spiritual times involving food and eating. From multiplying the loaves and fishes, to the disciples on the road to Emmaus, who after being with Him, only recognized Jesus in the breaking of bread, to Jesus feeding the disciples on the shore after His resurrection; again and again His power and presence find release through the provision of and the breaking of bread.

Read the full article →

Shared Anointings

February 19, 2014

The authority of Elijah’s anointing shut up the heavens and brought judgment on a reprobate Israel. Then his daring confrontation with evil changed Israel’s spiritual climate. In so doing, God’s people began coming out of the closet. So when Elisha asked for a double portion of Elijah’s spirit, it was no small thing. Elijah bore a disruptive anointing; an anointing that short-circuited the inroads of evil. His authority in the spirit stopped the sorcery in its tracks. It had no equal in that day. The fulfillment of Elisha’s request for a “double-portion” was evidenced not only by the startling miracles of his ministry, but by the angelic host unveiled around him in his encounter with the army of Syria (2 Kings 6:17). 2 Kings 13:21 then tells of a burial interrupted by a band of raiders. The dead man was abandoned in the tomb of Elisha and scripture indicates that when “he was let down and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived and stood on his feet.” So Elisha’s double-portion of Elijah’s anointing not only worked unusual miracles, it commanded the authority of a host of angels and carried a presence that even transcended his death.

Read the full article →

The Elect

October 18, 2013

During His entire earthly ministry, Jesus challenged misaligned and unproductive thinking. He raised the bar. He challenges those with idols in their minds, who miss the mark of true service by fearing the loss of their turf and “perceived empires.” There’s something very holy when a people refuse the defilements that come from the way the world responds to life and its ambitions. They begin seeing things from the stance of the Lord’s heart. It involves a standard that flows in the honor that only comes from God. It’s the standard that is at the heart of Jesus’ kingdom message. It reflects an issue of mind-sets that penetrate the very core of a culture. Jesus drew a strong line in the sand with the Pharisees. First, the standard for leaders is much higher. Jesus’ hard line also was because not only was Pharisaical-thinking askew in terms of God’s order; but because these religious leaders justified their thinking with what Jesus referred to as “the precepts of men.”

Read the full article →

The Maturity Factor

March 31, 2013

When it comes to bringing change to society; Christians tend to be so short-sighted and purist in approach that the impact short-circuits the valid, long-term intent. Short-term mind-sets reach for a goal of either ALL or nothing, right NOW. The unfortunate result from short-sighted, purist approaches is the loss of ground with a LOT of nothing to show for it. ”For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light.” Luke 16:8 The stumbling block is both a maturity and cultural issue. It first entails a myopic response to being right that is inbred and inflexible. Underlying this attitude is the gap in aggregate spiritual maturity. This gap is the lack of strategic vision to reach beyond our (Western) comfort zones with an applied long-term wisdom that sets in motion a key part of the mantle of Jesus: to destroy the works of the devil. What compounds this hurdle is far too many within the Body being stuck at acceptable, but immature maturity levels, passively blinded and immobilized by the precepts of men. To truly release a long-term strategy for this mantle, we need to get beyond being just hearers of the Word only, who deceive themselves, as noted in James 1. This involves a pathway into Body maturity; a pathway requiring not only the wisdom to enter, but the spiritual fortitude and unity to sustain the purpose.

Read the full article →

Spiritual Inoculation

March 17, 2013

There are many measures, both individual and community-wise, that the Lord applies when preparing His forerunners for change reflecting strategic significance. Visitations of His Spirit accompanied by deep repentance, as Isaiah had (Isaiah 6), is one. Visions, like Joseph the Patriarch experienced as a young man, is another. Angelic visitations such as Gideon had is another form of preparatory inoculation. Suffering, as in those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, is still another. Certain types of judgment to bring back straying individuals or communities is yet another. Each serve to prepare key individuals and communities for a change in season and the need for “something beyond” themselves. A recent news item described the bankruptcy of a respected ministry, as they attempt to navigate through a generational leadership vacuum after the retirement of their founder (WSJ, 10/23/10, Markets). In another instance, with parallel conditions, a ministry leader confided that their ongoing decline in revenues was due to the need for a new business model. Both are addressing changes in the times and seasons. Both are grappling with the reality for the “something more” needed for the season. Cycles in seasons are defined by change. The Body is maturing. The venues that two, three and four decades ago served to bring about the next step in Body maturity are transitioning into purpose-driven initiatives that mobilize the brethren. There’s a process involved. However, using the wrong model based on anything short of the Kingdom path will undermine fruitfulness, producing stagnation. Missing the transitions will diminish into stumbling blocks and strongholds. In short, initiatives begun in the spirit that begin declining into an imbalance of human effort initially will face erosion and then an undermining of the spiritual impact the effort might have once achieved. Snares and entanglements will produce a framework from which, apart from deep repentance, judgment will fall.
“Woe to world because of stumbling blocks [offenses], for stumbling blocks [offenses] must come; but woe to those by whom they come.” Matt 18:7

Read the full article →

Biblical Entrepreneurship and Success

June 24, 2012

Entrepreneurship, as God intended is designed to thrive within the community of His people. It is both an individual and a community factor of the “secret things” revealed by God to His own, designed to play a key role in them becoming the head and not the tail. As a true expression of righteous power, it can change the spiritual climate as it demonstrates the reality of God to non-believers when words fall short. Success of a new startup takes not only an expertise, but a realistic response to market need. In God’s economy, the success ratio is driven by much more, as I will soon discuss, not the least of which is making God the senior Partner and clearly adhering to His guidance.

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →