My challenge to believers of the day… which side of the fire are you on?
stacking his pile of wood. When the stack was big enough, he had it
drenched with water. Everyone knows wet wood does not burn. When the
wood was wet enough, he prayed…. Now it seems to me… Elijah was a believer before he prayed and
Elijah as a believer after he prayed, but something happened in the
mix of before and after. I believe the something that happened was
the Holy Spirit came down on Elijah and empowered him to take part in
bringing fire down from heaven. It was this purifying fire that
consumed the wet woodpile and authenticated the presence of God. It
was the purifying engulfment of Elijah by the Holy Spirit that likely
empowered him for future events, forever. Many point at modern day believers and snicker. It is in the snicker,
others are agreeing in the impotence we struggle with as believers.
Others have not seen us call down fire from heaven, because for the
most part we don’t. It’s said that today’s God is the God of love and
not so much hell fire and damnation. Maybe so, i don’t know and
that’s really not the point. What i want you to consider is the man
Elijah, before the fire and after the fire. I believe in the midst of struggle, Elijah was empowered by the Holy
Spirit. I believe it was the condition of his heart, that was fertile
ground for the Spirit to do It’s work. In obedience, fully conscious
that wood does not burn, he placed his life in jeopardy. Someone was
going to die before the day was out. Either he heard God right and
the wood was going to burn or Elijah was going to personally become
chopped liver and fed to the masses. My challenge to believers of the day… which side of the fire are you
on? Are you believing and not experiencing the incredible miraculous
God of the Bible? I am not challenging your salvation… i am
challenging your experience in and through God, empowered by the Holy
Spirit. Do you not know Jesus can abide, accompanied by the Holy
Spirit with a plan God wants to unfold in your life. This plan likely
includes a pile of wet wood or impossible task with your life
seemingly on the line. The only thing that stops His plan from
unfolding in your life, is you. Please be encouraged to reject the life of an impotent believer. It
is a dead end. Pray for and prepare for… God to send His Spirit to
empower you with Jesus abiding, to stack your own pile of wet wood.
It may be the miraculous that authenticates God’s presence and changes
you forever with a consuming fire from heaven and the abiding of Jesus
Christ. If this speaks to your heart… pray God will allow you to become the
type of believer, He desires to work miracles in and through. Be
expectant and ready to accept the challenge. It likely will come.
amen.
“You have your heads in your Bibles constantly because you think you’ll find eternal life there. But you miss the forest for the trees. These Scriptures are all about me! And here I am, standing right before you, and you aren’t willing to receive from me the life you say you want.”~Jesus
The key to giving life is knowing who is dead. How will you give life to someone who has life. Wouldn’t it be better to raise the dead?
God Continues to be God
.. and if God chooses to do what He does in a different way or seemingly not do at all… He is still God. Now that is tough to appreciate in the midst of battle.
A Guest Post by Ann Johnston
A friend recently asked for prayer for the removal of a ‘mass’ in his chest. He was to have an operation if a further scan showed a positive result. Here’s his latest report:
“I spent most of yesterday at the Alfred (Hospital) where I had a PET scan, followed by a series of procedures. By then the results of the scan were available and a cardio-thoracic registrar asked if he could have a word with me.
He had a rather coy look on his face. He explained that the results of the scan were confusing. In short, there was/is no metabolic activity. Whereas the scan had originally “lit up” several areas of cocern in the left lung and the lymph nodes at the bottom of the trachea, there was now nothing to cause any concern.
When asked what treatment I had undergone to remove the lung lesions, I said, “prayer”. The response to that was comical…”
Pemba Women’s Goat Project by Jim Taylor
A project designed for abandoned mothers and widows with children.
The ladies arrive in two’s and three’s… walking in from the village. We begin the classes at 8 AM .. supposedly .. but many do not arrive until quite some time later. None have watches. Some walk for 45 minutes one way and often there are things that delay. Time does not have the same meaning here as it does in the west.
All of them have hard lives. They live under conditions we from the west find hard to imagine. They are not “poor” in the sense that they are no worse off than most of the community they live in. All have seen death of loved ones from starvation, malaria, cholera, HIV or any number of other diseases.
When they gather in the hut at our house they visit with one another. We serve them juice and a bread roll. We also encourage them to drink water. It is one thing that many do not get enough of. They chatter happily with each other, eating their bread. Soon one lady will lead out in a song and they all harmonize, singing worship songs to the Lord. During some songs a few of the ladies will get up and dance. It is fun to watch the transformation from “hot and tired” to “joyful”.
Usually toward the last of their singing – which will last from ten to twenty minutes – the songs become slower, more worshipful, and often the presence of the Spirit of God is almost tangible. At the last song all will begin to pray. They will all pray for quite some time, asking God for help with problems, praying for the Mission and the Missionaries, for their families etc. As the prayers die down one will lead out .. “finishing” the praying as it were. When all say “Amen” they then clap their hands. It is time for class to begin.
I wish you could join us and experience it.
People with nothing – by our standards – yet full of happiness and joy. Not griping and complaining but joyful in what they have and what comes their way. We can learn a lot from them.
Our classes are teaching them:
– sanitation, nuitrition and disease prevention
– budegting, saving and starting a small business
– goat care and management
The class is one year in length. At the end of the class each lady will be given a goat. It is our hope that by that time they will understand that if they do not sell the goat or eat the goat, they can use it like a bank. Within three years they will have goats to sell or they can be selling goat meat.
Our goal is to help improve their lives and give them a chance they would never have otherwise.
Thank you for praying for us!
Yes. I believe my friend will experience the reality of Jesus abiding…. authenticated by his being healed. amen.
I have a friend with cancer that appears to have spread. I expect
Jesus abides in and about my friend. Jesus does not have cancer. It is
my belief, my friend should not have cancer either. I will pray.
will engulf my friend’s body and the cancerous cells will take on the
perfected identity and DNA makeup of Jesus in His abiding…. Yes. I believe my friend will experience the reality of Jesus
abiding…. authenticated by his being healed. amen. =================== The sick man said, “Sir, when the water is stirred, I don’t have
anybody to put me in the pool. By the time I get there, somebody else
is already in.” Jesus said, “Get up, take your bedroll, start
walking.” The man was healed on the spot. He picked up his bedroll
and walked off.
Pray to see things we’ve never seen; hear things we’ve never heard so we can do things we’ve never done before.
Posted by my friend, Jim Taylor, The Pemba Cowboy.
March 12, 2012
Kris Valloton speaking:
It’s been a learning journey for us (Misha, Kris' granddaughter, and Kris). Misha said, “This is the best week of my entire life!!!”
Prayer for spirit of revelation, to see things we’ve never seen; hear things we’ve never heard so we can do things we’ve never done before.
Iris is a great example of just this: titles don’t matter. When Jesus promoted His disciples, He called them apostles, not priests, rabbis, patriarchs, or prophets. He called them apostles. Apostle was a philosophical term . . . “to be sent” AND “To be sent from a place to another place and to make that place look like the place you are sent from,” like “when in Rome, do/act as the Romans.”
There is a difference in solely conquering lands and acculturation. The Romans would appoint some of the generals to not just conquer but to “change the culture.” Jesus promoted them and sent them with just this prayer . . . “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy Kingdom come, They will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
Do we live from earth toward heaven, or the other way round . . . from heaven toward earth?
From earth to heaven . . . we will always be living in reaction; from heaven toward earth, then prayers become prophetic declaration and our words become/are creating worlds (creating circumstances).
Apostolic prayer: pray this way . . . that it would be on earth as it IS in heaven. Our ministry is to bring heaven to earth . . . to bring His kingdom wherever we go, until the kingdoms of the earth are the kingdoms of His kingdom. The goal of our ministry is that we would bring what we see in our heavenly place to our earth . . . no sickness, crime, etc. Iris is one of the best examples of bringing the kingdom that he’s seen in the world . . . we aren’t just bringing food, but the kingdom. And THAT is exciting!!!
Can always be looking at what needs to be done . . . example-outreach . . . always room for more kingdom, but at the very least they are starting to have a kingdom mentality. Ways that kingdom changes society . . . we call them our revivalist graduates . . . teach them and send them out, thinking “You are going to change the place that you are sent to.” They return discouraged. As a father, it’s hard to see them suffer like this. Encouraging picture of a boiling pot of water and a refrigerator . . . boiling pot of water put into the fridge. We think that the fridge will get hot. On the contrary, the boiling pot gets cold. There is an ecosystem all its own in the fridge . . . “new” concept in sending out . . . Instead of going, why don’t we apostle/send them?
What’s the difference? When someone goes, they are independent. When someone is sent, they are interdependent. There is still resourcing, connection.
Back to vision: plug in the pot to the electricity. Counter culture . . . the fridge and the pot each have powering systems. The next level . . . how to unplug the fridge. How do we unplug the ecosystem of the fridge? How do we become the culture, not just influence it, but actually change and become the operating system?
When those that we’ve trained stay plugged in, it is a good thing. But when we can then transform the culture by taking the power out of the existing culture/kingdom powered by evil, it is better.
Another example . . . human trafficking. If I rescue them but don’t teach them something else, it only perpetuates the problem. We are dealing with the problem/symptoms . . . which is fine, but we cannot expect this alone to solve the issue.
God is sending us into the culture in different ways. Evidenced in 6 ways in the Old Testament:
1. Joseph and Daniel – friends with kings; transformed countries through honoring kings
2. Elijah and Elisha – hostile relationships with kings; changed countries from the outside in
3. Jonah – to the unsaved
4. Hosea and Amos – prophesied to the people, not the kings; created people movements (“Grass roots movement”) that then changed culture
5. Nathan and Gad – became friends with King David – helped king personally; not connection with the people
6. Kris can’t remember at this point . . .
John the Baptist – before he was born, it was prophesied that he would not drink wine and have no razor to his face. He would have only one message – REPENT! He didn’t need any notes!!! Jesus born six months later, makes wine, goes to weddings, drinks wine, called a friend of sinners and a drunkard (But was definitely NOT a drunkard). Jesus went to parties, hung out with sinners, ministered to women. John preached in the wilderness.
When Jesus meets John, He asks him to baptize Him. “I can’t do that. I am not even fit to untie your sandals.” Jesus’ reply, “It is necessary.” John, who preaches repentance, is baptizing the only one who doesn’t need baptism for repentance. (Jesus had no reason to need this baptism.) Immediately, the Father’s response is to send Holy Spirit . . . who REMAINS!!!
When you can honor the ministry of another who does it differently, when you can honor in a way that recognized the difference in calling (inside the walls, outside the walls), something happens and the Holy Spirit comes and remains. Jesus honoring John’s ministry was the first example of this.
Iris in the beginning stages of bringing heaven to earth. John the Baptists, Daniels and Joesphs, Nathans and Gads, Jonahs . . . lots of different faces to this ministry working toward the same end of transforming culture!!!
“There is nothing you can do that will cause Christ to love you any more or any less.”~Luis Rey
I met with a few friends this evening, to enjoy each other's company and Jesus showed up.
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