National Anthem

Many of you know that I am a big Chicago Bears fan, and rightly so, but I want to show you the environment at the beginning of the game this past week (Bears 35, Seahawks 24). I takes a big voice to fill an entire stadium but I think this singer pulled it off. Enjoy.

Fasting

Here at The Point we have set aside 21 days in January to fast and pray. We committed 7 days last year and were blessed by the participation across the church. This year as we approached this time I could sense the anticipation and expectation of the church. We are believing for breakthrough on a personal and a corporate level. The reward of a greater intimacy with our Father is motivating many to sacrifice for this time period. We realize that fasting is not just a withholding of food for its own sake , but a discipline to draw closer to God. We want to hear from Him, abide in His presence, receive revelation and guidance from Him, and call on Him for the resources we need to move ahead as a church.

Along with fasting we are meeting to pray, calling on God to release favor, revelation, resource, fruitfulness, breakthrough, salvations, healings, miracles, growth, wisdom, love and much more. As exciting as it is to see the momentum toward fasting, it is great to see the church praying together. What will God do when a people searches for Him with one heart and one voice? I believe He will move in ways that will astound us and the world, and that He  will speak mysteries and strategies for us to take into this year that will mark this year as a turning point.  If you haven’t joined us yet in prayer and fasting, come on! Join in. This will be an exciting year.

Recommended Reading

I have people recommend books to me all the time. These books will change my life, because they are the best books I will ever read, I am told. I read them and in most cases do not share the same enthusiasm or passion for the book that my friends have.  It is with these thoughts in mind that I am going to recommend a book to my readers. I will refrain from making world-changing declarations, but I do think that you will enjoy the read.

The attendees of the Bethel conference in November were given a free copy of Stephen K. De Silva’s book, Money and the Prosperous Soul. I am not a big fan of books on money management, but I do enjoy free things. It took me a while to pick it up and begin reading but soon found myself caught. The book has very little to do with money on a practical level but focuses on our heart and the issues that perpetuate poverty and undermine wealth. If our souls are prospering; knowing who we are, knowing who our Father  is, knowing our purpose in life, and being good stewards of our purpose and revelation, we will handle wealth with ease.

He encourages us to adopt an “artistic” lifestyle.

“Embracing and living in our divine purpose as prosperous souls and supernatural stewards is more art than science. As good artists do, we must learn to take the materials of life as they come to us-in all their messiness, emotions and vulnerability-and discover ways of creating beauty, hope, joy love, and friendship from them all. An artistic approach to life will necessarily take time and space for dreams, for conversation and communion, for creativity and experimentation, for rest and for fun. This approach will make room for all the activities that enable us to build and sustain our relationships with God and with people, which is what life is about. True heavenly wisdom can always be seen in believers who adopt this artistic approach to life.”

He goes on to comment on a “scientific” approach. “A scientific, formulaic approach usually breaks down because of its tendency to create a controlled, sterile, compartmentalized environment where we focus on parts at the expense of the whole, and facts at the expense of relationships.”

I know these are taken out of context, but I wanted to give you a hint of insight into how our soul’s health and approach to life and our purpose here in this life will affect our life more than the size of our bank account or our adherence to a budget. I encourage you to read it yourself. Be challenged to think and to have God open up your soul. Be blessed.

California

I just returned  from a trip to California. The purpose of the trip was to attend a conference at Bethel church in Redding, California. God is doing something extraordinary through their ministry and Andrew and I wanted to see what they had on the ground there in their home city. We have benefited from their ministry, their teachings, their music, and their message of love and the culture of honor. We wanted to see it close up.

My initial impressions revolved around the size of the city, the size of the  facility, and the location in northern California. Redding is a small city in a hard to reach portion of northern California. It is absolutely beautiful with the mountains surrounding the city. Airline service to the city is an adventure as I flew in on a twin-engine propeller plane. The airport looked like a good-sized fire station in any other city. The city was small, yet accommodating to any traveler’s needs. I couldn’t get past the fact that this city housed a church that was influencing the world. As I talked with some of the residents, I found that they seemed unaware of the impact Bethel was wielding outside their city. The Bethel facility is located on a hill that sports a spectacular view of the surrounding mountains, including snow-covered Mt. Shasta. The facility is nice yet woefully small in terms of the numbers that attend on the weekends, the numbers in their school , and the numbers that attend their conferences. They do a fantastic job of making the facility work for them. they restrict the students from some of the Sunday meetings to allow room for regular church attendees.

Once one got past the surprise of the lay of the land, the culture of the environment that the leaders have created there for the church and the schools was wonderful to see. People genuinely loved each other, honored each other, loved God, believed God was and is doing amazing things, and worshipped God with great passion. They are all committed to seeing revival come and affect the world today and into the future.

I came away with joy at seeing what God is doing among them. It also gave me hope that the platform from where the message is preached isn’t as important as the message itself. The message of the power of the kingdom, and the power of the love of the Father can be effective no matter where it based.  May the truth of the kingdom continue to go out from every voice, pulpit, church, computer, and city and touch the entire world.

Promises

It has been some time since my last post. There were some vacation days, the start of school, the beginning of our Revolution team, the beginning of our ACTS program, and other distractions to my blog. But I have time today.

At the ACTS session this week my topic was Understanding God. One of the aspects of God that I covered was His eternal nature, and how He transcends time and is not affected by it. As I explained His ability to know and see the beginning and the end simultaneously and how He knows what it takes to get from one point in time to another, I began to see prophetic words and promises in a new light. When a true prophetic word is given to us it should be there to build us up, to encourage us, and strengthen us for the journey. They can also point a way forward for us to reach our future that He already sees. The prophetic word or promise can shine a lamp onto the path we need to take to reach a place  He already has prepared for us. The promise also allows us to glimpse past the curtain of time to see what He sees for us. We can then drag that glimpse of the future into our present plans and faith. We need to believe the promise, put our faith to work, and actively pursue it by making concrete plans of actions. The prophetic word or promise, as true as they are, still needs to be worked out on our end. In His grace He allows us to glimpse the good things He has for us. Let’s not despise that grace and sit back, but pursue the future He has for us with faith and action.

Contrasts

Yesterday was a day of contrasts for me. It was a beautiful day, moderate temperatures and low humidity. A gorgeous day. A friend of ours had called with great news. the ideal job that he had been praying for was beginning to look like reality. Out of nowhere this job opportunity fell into his lap. Favor was being given to him before he even applied for the job. We were as excited as he was because we had prayed and believed with him for this new position. God was on the move and we could see the beginning of the answer. 

Later on this same beautiful day, I received a phone call informing me that the granddaughter of our friends had been caught between the bed and the wall and had stopped breathing. They were able to get the baby’s heart going but at this time we do not know the outcome. They need a miracle and many are praying for just that. I was struck by the fact that as one family is rejoicing in the answer to prayer, another is thrust into a tragedy where they need God to move in a massive way.  

Two families, two different scenarios, two different responses and emotions, yet God sits enthroned above them both. If we do not have a Biblical understanding of God we could wonder why does He seemingly bless one family while apparently terrorizes the other. But we know God and He is good. He brings answers to prayer and blessing and He does not bring terror or tragedy to His children. When tragedy does come from our enemy, God turns it and works all things for His good. We know Him and trust Him in all circumstances, good or bad.

Wisdom

Much is said about wisdom in the Bible. It is the major topic in the book of Proverbs. As it says, “Get wisdom.” Sometimes that is easier said than done, especially as it is hard to define wisdom in a narrow, restrictive manner. Wisdom is more than knowledge, yet we need knowledge. It is more than just common sense because wisdom relies on revelation of matters and persons (God) larger than ourselves. It is an understanding beyond ‘common’ sense.

Anyway, these are some of my thoughts as I heard someone give a provocative definition of wisdom. This speaker was talking about leading people, running an organization, and pulling on the gifts and anointing of those we are leading. He said that wisdom is stewarding glory. In the context in which he was speaking, wisdom is the ability to see the glory that resides in others; the innate abilities, the supernatural gifting of God, the dreams and visions of their lives, and the ultimate purpose for their lives that God has for them. Wisdom searches for, discovers, unfolds, encourages, builds, shapes, makes room for, finances, and honors the glory that is in those around us. It not only looks for it, but finds it and stewards that glory to achieve the ultimate purpose of God in people’s lives. We often think of being good stewards of our time and our money, and rightly so, but wisdom is knowing, grabbing a hold of, and accepting the responsibility we all have of stewarding the glory we find in others. We are to be stewards of the glory we find in those we lead or are in relationship with in any capacity. Wisdom is stewarding the glory in our spouses, our children, our friends, those we work with, those we are committed to in the local church, and, really, anyone the Lord has put into our lives. You may ask how you can possibly do all that, but wisdom is knowing that you must and that you can. Let’s be wise.