On The Road
We went through a few surreal days in Charlotte, NC, in the middle of a gas shortage. The few gas stations that had gas also had long lines. It could take hours to fill up; a clerk in the grocery store said a man pointed a gun at him and demanded that he let him get in front of him in the gas line. A waitress in the Cracker Barrel said she wondered how she could to continue to get to work if the crisis continued.
The shortage spread further and further into the state, and the news reports said it would take weeks to get back to normal. County offices elsewhere in NC were closed because people couldn’t get to and from work. For a few days, we wondered if we would be able to get to our scheduled meetings.
Pressures have eased, but we hear that gas supplies are still erratic.
Is this fuel shortage a hiccup in America’s history, or is it the shape of things to come? I just heard of a man in Galveston who has now been without power for two weeks. He’s decided to move.
The issue here isn’t survival or even safety; it’s business as usual. If the infrastructure around us is collapsing, we can’t get our work done. With no power, the computer won’t work and there is no way to recharge a cell phone. How could most of us do business without electricity?
Many of the people who lived through Katrina still haven’t gotten back to normal. Elsewhere it’s floods or droughts, ice or heat, a fallen bridge or a failed power grid.
What about faith? Many of us will find that as we listen to God’s voice, He will show us how to thread our way through the impossibilities around us and fulfill what He has given us to do. We will be the person whose flight is on time when others are stranded in the airport for days, or will find the one gas station that is open when all the others are closed. These graces will be part of our testimony.
Some of us will stumble into a prayer life that will bring reversals to the crises. The storm is coming, we speak the word, and the storm subsides. Or we will pray, and the power grid will suddenly be restored.
Psalm 91 says that if we are in the secret place, a thousand fall at our right hand and ten thousand at our left, but the plague will not touch us. Some of us will learn to stay in the secret place and will be the one person in 11,000 who can get through the storm, the shortage, or the power outage.
How do we contend for the kingdom? No matter how much upheaval we face, the promises of God will not collapse. We are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken.
The faith route will take us to a place of God’s intervention. It glorifies Him when His people look to Him and find His provision and faithfulness amidst impossibilities.
But sometimes, in spite of our prayers, we still can’t get to the meeting on time…we still don’t have electricity to keep the computer charged…we can’t go on with business as usual.
The parable of the sheep and the goats gives us a pattern we can follow even when we can’t get to the meeting. Wherever we see one of God’s people hungry, thirsty, unclothed, imprisoned, or sick, we have a ministry opportunity to them and to the Lord Himself. If upheaval keeps us from getting to the meeting, it may be because God is teaching us to see the ministry opportunities all around us in everyday life.
So contend for faith – this will be the theme of the online school this month – and always look for opportunities to minister the love of God. If you can’t make it to the meeting, be a good Samaritan and look for someone who is bleeding and dying on the Jericho Road. This may be more important than business as usual anyway.
Recent Meetings
I’m going to tell the highlights of two recent meetings I have ministered in – a soaking meeting where I played and sang prophetically about a week and a half ago, and a FGBMFI meeting in Tulare CA where I spoke this weekend. But I’m also going to share about what goes on between meetings – for this is as much a part of ministry as anything else.
The soaking meeting seemed a bit subdued. It may have been because we had a few new people who didn’t know what soaking is, and I had to pause at times to explain what was going on at various points as I sang prophetically. This will probably be a feature of the monthly soaking meetings from now on.
The music flowed as it did the month before: several times I found myself exploring a lyrical theme I would not have anticipated. At the end, people began coming forward for prayer. One by one as they made their requests known, I realized I had already sung into their needs. The prayers often echoed a theme I had sung a few moments before.
I see it as a fulfillment of Zephaniah 3:17:
Then this weekend I made the three hour drive to speak at the FGBMFI dinner at Tulare CA. I shared about the online school and passed the assignment on to them. We were on a tight schedule, so there was no time for personal ministry.
But I shared with them about hearing God’s voice: quiet your heart, focus on Jesus, and look for a spontaneous flow of words. A man named Edward was sitting in the front; I walked through the steps as I prayed over him. I pointed out that what I had prayed had been generalities, something I could have spoken over everybody in the room.
Then I took a risk: I asked if the word had meant anything to him beyond generalities. He nodded and said it had been very specific; he said it was all he could to to keep from breaking down and sobbing.
It was a risk because I never know how personal and specific a word will prove to be. If I minister to ten people, it will always be more profound for some than for others.
But this is where the online school helps me. I find it easy to minister in meetings. I’ve been doing it for decades. But I also find it a little too easy to get caught up in the bustle of ministerial activities and to miss the divine appointments that happen between meetings.
The parable of the good Samaritan addresses this. The priest and the Levite each passed the battered man and left him alone. No doubt they were running late for an appointment; they were too busy with their ministries to find time for the man.
I haven’t found or made many ministry opportunities between meetings this month.
I want to be like Jesus, not like the priest and the Levite. And how did Jesus live? He was interruptible. He took time to cross town to minister to Jairus’s daughter – He allowed Himself to be interrupted by the woman with the issue of blood. In or out of a meeting, He was ready to serve and bless.
On The Road
Sometimes when God wants to press a word on us, He speaks it several times and finds ways to call attention to it.
It began when I was in the Seattle area at a men’s retreat, and God dropped a conviction in my heart: He wants to promote people to another plateau in their destinies, but they must clear out the clutter in their present level so they’ll be ready to move higher in God’s time. Then He put it to me in an unusual way: “Picture the last 25 living rooms you’ve seen. If the lieutenant governor were going to visit in half an hour, how many could be ready to receive him?”
I shared the challenge at the retreat and thought that would be the end of it. But within a week, I dreamed that I was a soldier on leave, waiting for the train that would take me back to the base. I had a sweater and a jacket and a bag for each hand, and had slung them carelessly over a bench where I sat, talking to a friend while I waited for the train.
But the train never stopped. It slowed down, then it moved on. By the time I realized it had come, it had gone. I ran after it bout could not catch it. I could not have caught it with something in each hand and sweaters and jackets over my arms; I would have had to run along and jump on, catching a handhold.
The dream startled me and woke me up at 4:44. I could not get back to sleep.
A few nights later I dreamed again. This time it was a simple dream; I was waiting to catch a plane but missed it because I was so engrossed in a conversation in the board-ing area that I never managed to board.
I’ve been pondering the theme of these three messages ever since, looking for ways to get rid of clutter and to be more ordered and focused.
Then a few days ago when I was in Las Vegas, I glanced at my cell phone and noticed that it was 4:44 in the afternoon. Of all the prophetic people I know, there isn’t one who pays less attention to numbers than I do. But it was 4:44, the hour when I had awakened from the dream about the train, and I thought of Pat Sparrow, a prophet in my region. I know the number 444 means a lot to him. So I called and asked, “What does 444 mean to you?”
His answer went on for ten minutes, but the key thought for me was the promise in Ezekiel 44:4 that the glory of God would come to God’s house. I sense an appointment with God’s glory is ahead, He is graciously warning me not to miss it.
I shared my three-step revelation with Pat, and he asked me to visit his church office and share it, so he could record it on video and share it with the church on Sunday. We met, made the recording, and then went out for coffee.
Driving home, I tried to enter our gated community but was delayed because a confused driver was blocking the lane and cars had lined up behind her. It seemed quickest to go around the traffic circle and use the other entrance on Sparrow Street. I looked down as the gate opened and noticed the time on my cell phone: 4:44.
I know there are a lot of significant details in the dreams, but I’m content to focus on one main conviction: clutter, lack of focus, and distraction are trying to work together to keep me out of God’s highest purposes. I’m working hard to tighten up in all these areas.
But here’s the next question. Is this word for me only, or is it also for you?
If the shoe fits, wear it.
On The Road
I am in Las Vegas, near the end of a week with Dennis and Lynnie Walker. They run a school of the Spirit here called Dunamis ARC (Apostolic Research Center) and have put a lot of good resources online. Many are free.
I have had ministry times in the meetings – I preached on Sunday – and have had a lot of good conversation with Dennis and Lynnie in an “iron sharpens iron” sort of way. They have given me several good suggestions about my own school of the Spirit, confirming what my wife has felt, and they have helped me with the nuts and bolts of putting it together.
As always, a learning curve goes with it: I need to start producing DVDs that will be usable for individual study, for groups, or for churches.
I’m going to stick with the format I use on my teaching CDs: to break the material into four or five short segments so people have the option of listening to all at once or to take it one section at a time.
I was soaking when this idea came to me; I pictured people in a home meeting, playing one track in each meeting for several weeks in a row. Because each track ran for 12-14 minutes, they could listen for a few minutes and then have time for discussion, testimonies, and prayer for one another.
Incidentally, Dennis has several worship leaders in his group, but he doesn’t always use live music. Often they begin their workshops with soaking music on CD and many of the people lie on the floor for this part of the meeting. Others stay in their seats.
Dennis has written a downloadable flyer about soaking. Not too long ago, I wrote on the theme of having a soaking party in each of my blogs: The Miracle Lifestyle, Prophetic Song, and Culture Shapers. If you have never done any-thing like this before, download Dennis’s flyer. It’s nicely laid out, it’s in PDF format, and it’s simple and clear. Visit http://www.dunamisarc.org/images/stories/public/Soaking-Flyer.pdf.
While I’m on the subject, another free download you don’t want to miss is Mark Virkler’s flyer about the four keys to hearing God’s voice. This too is in PDF format, and it’s a classic. Click http://www.cluonline.com/4Keys.pdf.
I have received a lot by visiting Dennis and Lynnie’s school and brainstorming throughout the week. But there was also a moment when God dumped a new idea into Dennis while we were out doing errands. I won’t share it here because it is still in the formative stages, but I was impressed with how Dennis handled it.
He had the idea at lunchtime Saturday. He blurted it out, then we stopped in a restaurant to eat and excitedly started exploring what the idea would mean and what opportunities it would open. By the time we got home, he was on the phone, inviting a few core people to his home so he could present the idea to them.
Then we went to Office Max to buy a whiteboard so he could put the facts and figures before them. That night, about ten people showed up. Dennis shared what God had given him; they seemed enthusiastic about the idea; they agreed to process it and get more info about the nuts and bolts for a week and then to meet again next Saturday.
Dennis had the idea at noon. By the time he went to bed that night, he had set the idea in motion.
How long would it have taken you or me to take the first step?
Romans 1:11-12 talks about this: “For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift, so that you may be established – that is, that I may be encouraged together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me.” This is what ministry is all about. God uses us, but He also pours something into us through those He sends us to.
Pray For Us
As a child, I would sometimes see a river of ants moving across a sidewalk. I would step on a few. Then I would notice that the ants fell into two categories: those who would stop what they were doing to look at the carnage and, apparently, to discuss it among themselves; and those who would go on with whatever they had been doing before.
Now that the Spirit-filled churches are reeling from Todd Bentley’s disclosures and all the questions that go with his controversial ministry, we are acting like ants. Some of us seem to have no purpose but to dissect what went right and what went wrong. Others have a mission, and are going on with it.
For me, it’s time to get on with the mission God has given me. And I’m encouraging others to do the same. You had a mission before you ever heard of Lakeland. You may have received fresh grace from the outpouring there – JoAnn and I did – and this will help you with your mission. But it’s time to get on with whatever God has assigned us all to do.
Ministry trips. First I‘ll be in Las Vegas, September 3-10, to connect with Dennis Walker’s school of the Spirit. When I get home, I’m leading a soaking meeting at my home church, Agape, Sept. 12, 7:00 pm. A week later, I speak at the Tulare CA FGBMFI, Saturday Sept. 20.
Then JoAnn and I leave for a month in NC, from September 23 to October 23. We’ll stay in Charlotte, within walking distance of Morningstar, where we look forward to seeing how the Lakeland Outpouring has played out. We’re also connecting with Walt and Julie Meyer, worship leaders in Kansas City.
I’m still arranging the meetings that will happen when we’re in NC, and will post them on my itinerary as soon as details become clear.
Writing. I’ve begun writing JoAnn’s book – the short version of her testimony is at http://diaryofanexorcism.com – but the long version is a diary of about 100,000 words. I’ll be shortening and rewriting it to make it tell not only what she went through, but also what was going on in her heart as God drew her to Himself.
I’m excited about the project. I’ve been writing for months about “Culture Shapers” and the need for Christian artists to think in terms of letting God show them how to use their talents to make an impact on people. This book is an opportunity to write something for a secular market.
At the same time, I’m excited about the challenge. I’ll have to use writing skills I’ve never needed before. Pray for me, that I’ll be able to write a crossover book that will speak to the unsaved and will strengthen young converts.
School of the Spirit. Last month, I revamped the “Prophetic Song” blog to reflect a new style I plan to use on all my blogs. Its search feature makes it possible for a reader to pick a topic and search for other articles that mention it. And the articles listed across the top of the page tell how to use the online school.
I need to recreate my other blogs in this same format. It will take time to write all the necessary articles, and I have to research how to put all the blogs on gospelsmith.com. It will make the presentation look cleaner, and will be easier to use.
I fell behind on the “Miracle Lifestyle” recordings, but am catching up today and will have them posted at the beginning of this week. When I have had time to record, something has always made it impossible – construction work outdoors, server problems, and so on.
Pray for us. We appreciate all of you who pray for us. Thank you so much.