Monday, December 14, 2009
Notice****
Hello everyone. To my thousands of fans. I have moved my blog. I can now be found at http://facelessman.wordpress.com/. I decided to go with WordPress because I have the Pray-Tell Blog on WordPress also. So..... look over there. I placed all of my posts from this site to the new one. Thanks! Be blessed!
Monday, August 10, 2009
Talk vs Power
1 Corinthians 4:20-21 20 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power. 21 What do you prefer?
I read this in my morning devotion and it has been stuck in my mind. Even though verse 21 is a precursor to the rest of the verse, it made me think. "What do people really prefer?" Words, or power? Looking at the church the past 20 years it appears that "Words" dominate the season. Power seems to be absent in the church. In some churches today, if you feel a little tingle during worship you think that the power of the Holy Spirit is just rushing through the place, when 15 years earlier in the same church, the power of God was so evident, that you could almost reach out and touch it.
I was talking with a friend last night at a birthday party. We had both cut our teeth in ministry at a certain church we had both attended. We reminisced about how you had to be at this church on Sunday Nights at least an hour or more before service started to get a seat. It was generally standing room only. Sunday evenings were much more "free" in a sense because there were no time restraints. Worship was over the top. You could feel the "Glory of the Lord" in and outside the sanctuary. At times you could see it. It was like a cloud hovering over. People accepted Christ not because of what the pastor preached, but due to the presence of power in the place. No words needed to be spoken. God was there and everyone knew it. Even the people who came in off the street and did not know God knew who they were in the presence of. People were healed of sickness, set free from addictions, and totally restored. Services started at 6pm and many times we left after 10pm. Why? God was moving. Man stayed out of the way. Man did not input his own wisdom into the service. Man followed God, and His Word. This same church is just a shell of what it once was. The leadership and people currently attending this church now will tell you that it is alive and has cutting edge everything, and reaching people for Jesus, but like in Revelation 3:1, "I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead." They are following one of the church "models" that are out there and now they accept what used to be unacceptable. Rich Wilkerson asked on FaceBook what we thought "Status Quo" meant, well concerning today's church, it is doing what everyone else is doing. Just getting by. Doing just what is good enough. Using man's creation other than God's.
What do I prefer? That's easy. I'll take the manifestation of God's power any day. I have heard enough talk in church. I want to see action. Prayer brings action. Prayer lays the ground work for God to move. I was once a proponent of the best bands, fun in service, cutting edge technologies being used in services, all the things to draw people to church. It was all man's ways. I had been influenced by other church leaders, conferences, and even seeing people come into church in large numbers, but I found how shallow the church was. Now I am not against good worship music/bands, technology, or even have a fun service, it's all about why? Why do we do what we do? Do we want bodies to fill the seats to show that we are successful or do we do it because we have a heart after God? There's a big difference between the two. Paul had it right. 1 Corinthians 2:4-5 4 My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, 5 so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power.
I read this in my morning devotion and it has been stuck in my mind. Even though verse 21 is a precursor to the rest of the verse, it made me think. "What do people really prefer?" Words, or power? Looking at the church the past 20 years it appears that "Words" dominate the season. Power seems to be absent in the church. In some churches today, if you feel a little tingle during worship you think that the power of the Holy Spirit is just rushing through the place, when 15 years earlier in the same church, the power of God was so evident, that you could almost reach out and touch it.
I was talking with a friend last night at a birthday party. We had both cut our teeth in ministry at a certain church we had both attended. We reminisced about how you had to be at this church on Sunday Nights at least an hour or more before service started to get a seat. It was generally standing room only. Sunday evenings were much more "free" in a sense because there were no time restraints. Worship was over the top. You could feel the "Glory of the Lord" in and outside the sanctuary. At times you could see it. It was like a cloud hovering over. People accepted Christ not because of what the pastor preached, but due to the presence of power in the place. No words needed to be spoken. God was there and everyone knew it. Even the people who came in off the street and did not know God knew who they were in the presence of. People were healed of sickness, set free from addictions, and totally restored. Services started at 6pm and many times we left after 10pm. Why? God was moving. Man stayed out of the way. Man did not input his own wisdom into the service. Man followed God, and His Word. This same church is just a shell of what it once was. The leadership and people currently attending this church now will tell you that it is alive and has cutting edge everything, and reaching people for Jesus, but like in Revelation 3:1, "I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead." They are following one of the church "models" that are out there and now they accept what used to be unacceptable. Rich Wilkerson asked on FaceBook what we thought "Status Quo" meant, well concerning today's church, it is doing what everyone else is doing. Just getting by. Doing just what is good enough. Using man's creation other than God's.
What do I prefer? That's easy. I'll take the manifestation of God's power any day. I have heard enough talk in church. I want to see action. Prayer brings action. Prayer lays the ground work for God to move. I was once a proponent of the best bands, fun in service, cutting edge technologies being used in services, all the things to draw people to church. It was all man's ways. I had been influenced by other church leaders, conferences, and even seeing people come into church in large numbers, but I found how shallow the church was. Now I am not against good worship music/bands, technology, or even have a fun service, it's all about why? Why do we do what we do? Do we want bodies to fill the seats to show that we are successful or do we do it because we have a heart after God? There's a big difference between the two. Paul had it right. 1 Corinthians 2:4-5 4 My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, 5 so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power.
Friday, July 24, 2009
Ron Auch's Message on "Run for Your Life"
Go to this link, "Pictures and Videos", and click on the message for 071909runweb.
http://www.prayerhouseag.org/
Brad
http://www.prayerhouseag.org/
Brad
Today's Thoughts
If you know me, you know that I can be outspoken and I do tell you what I think. I am not real articulate with speech and maybe I should be, but direct speaking makes a point. I do not sugar coat. Some like it, others don't, but I am what I am, and I believe I was made this way for a purpose. I guess it is the evangelist in me.
The purpose of this post comes from the fact that God is pushing me to change even more. The change is to be even more radical. The radical change is not what would be considered radical in perspective to the Word of God, but would be considered radical to the standards of the church in America today. I was at a multi-church rally a couple weeks back here in Kenosha, and after Ron Auch and I baptized people in Lake Michigan, as my wife and I walked back to our vehicle, we walked by some passers by. A man said, "must be a bunch of Jesus freaks." My first reaction was real Christian, I thought, "you dope, if you only knew." I was reprimanded through my spirit with a, "that was unchristian." It was. This man had no clue. I was passing judgement. I should have prayed for his salvation, which I eventually did, but he like many do not know the truth. I thought about what he said. "Jesus freak." Years ago, the Jesus freaks caused a huge movement in our country. The followed the Word by loving others where they were at no matter how they were treated. It wasn't about them. It was about those who where not free. Hmmmm. We need that today. Am I a Jesus freak?
Back to me. Radical. I pray and study the Word, but do I do it for habit to say that I do it, or do I do it for purpose? I want to draw closer to the Lord, but what really are my intentions. I want to walk in the gifts, but again what are my intentions? I am 51 years old, and I look back, (which I shouldn't) but I see so many missed opportunities, and lost time. Time....... something we have so little of in this very short life. Our lives are like the blink of an eye. We are here, then we are gone. What am I to do with this short time left? I don't want to stand before God with a bunch of missed opportunities due to my short sightedness, laziness, or not setting priorities.
Radical. God said, "Be ye Holy". What is Holy? I wonder how many people in the church of America can even answer that question. What is holy to me? How am I holy? What do I do to become holy like the Word means it? Man has his sense of what holy is, but it is so far short of what the Word means it to be. What does "walking in the light" mean? How do I walk in light? What does, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me", mean? What must I do? Matt. 22:37, Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38This is the first and great commandment. 39And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself." How do I love the Lord my God? What are my actions? How do I love my neighbor? I must do the first to do the second. All questions but the answers lead to completeness in Christ.
1 John 2:15 says, "Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. 17And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever."
What is the "world"? Worldliness. I must abstain. I must move away from it. I must shelter myself from it. I must wash myself from it. I am in it only to save those out of it. To much of the church this is radical. The church is so much part of the world they do not even see a line anymore not to cross. It has become blurred. I am not one that says that you should hide. I believe that you should be seen. You should be seen walking in the power of the Almighty. That what you possess, can not be removed from you and that those seeing you should want what you possess. Weak Christians stay from individuals who are unchurched because they are afraid. They make excuses for their lack of power because they have not made a stand, and are not walking in power because they do not have a right relationship with God. Maybe that is better that they don't. That just don't need to talk about those they do not want to rub shoulders with. The issue is that if they had a relationship, more people would believe. Jesus hung with those who did not know the truth. He did not live they way they lived, but showed them how they should live. His life brought freedom. We should do the same. If we are living in freedom, individuals will want that freedom too.
All this babbling brings me to this point. One of my future endeavors will be to lead a small group of men who will want to walk to the beat of a different drum. Men who will be radical in a sense that they will turn their backs on their former life and live their lives totally different. They will abstain from those things that do not honor God. They will strive to be Godly at all costs. Be Holy. Love the Lord their God with everything in them. Love people the same way. Pray for power to minister, and walk in that power. I am looking for men who want to be generals. Will I find them? Let's hope so. People are dying with no hope. Who will rescue them if we don't?
The purpose of this post comes from the fact that God is pushing me to change even more. The change is to be even more radical. The radical change is not what would be considered radical in perspective to the Word of God, but would be considered radical to the standards of the church in America today. I was at a multi-church rally a couple weeks back here in Kenosha, and after Ron Auch and I baptized people in Lake Michigan, as my wife and I walked back to our vehicle, we walked by some passers by. A man said, "must be a bunch of Jesus freaks." My first reaction was real Christian, I thought, "you dope, if you only knew." I was reprimanded through my spirit with a, "that was unchristian." It was. This man had no clue. I was passing judgement. I should have prayed for his salvation, which I eventually did, but he like many do not know the truth. I thought about what he said. "Jesus freak." Years ago, the Jesus freaks caused a huge movement in our country. The followed the Word by loving others where they were at no matter how they were treated. It wasn't about them. It was about those who where not free. Hmmmm. We need that today. Am I a Jesus freak?
Back to me. Radical. I pray and study the Word, but do I do it for habit to say that I do it, or do I do it for purpose? I want to draw closer to the Lord, but what really are my intentions. I want to walk in the gifts, but again what are my intentions? I am 51 years old, and I look back, (which I shouldn't) but I see so many missed opportunities, and lost time. Time....... something we have so little of in this very short life. Our lives are like the blink of an eye. We are here, then we are gone. What am I to do with this short time left? I don't want to stand before God with a bunch of missed opportunities due to my short sightedness, laziness, or not setting priorities.
Radical. God said, "Be ye Holy". What is Holy? I wonder how many people in the church of America can even answer that question. What is holy to me? How am I holy? What do I do to become holy like the Word means it? Man has his sense of what holy is, but it is so far short of what the Word means it to be. What does "walking in the light" mean? How do I walk in light? What does, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me", mean? What must I do? Matt. 22:37, Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38This is the first and great commandment. 39And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself." How do I love the Lord my God? What are my actions? How do I love my neighbor? I must do the first to do the second. All questions but the answers lead to completeness in Christ.
1 John 2:15 says, "Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. 17And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever."
What is the "world"? Worldliness. I must abstain. I must move away from it. I must shelter myself from it. I must wash myself from it. I am in it only to save those out of it. To much of the church this is radical. The church is so much part of the world they do not even see a line anymore not to cross. It has become blurred. I am not one that says that you should hide. I believe that you should be seen. You should be seen walking in the power of the Almighty. That what you possess, can not be removed from you and that those seeing you should want what you possess. Weak Christians stay from individuals who are unchurched because they are afraid. They make excuses for their lack of power because they have not made a stand, and are not walking in power because they do not have a right relationship with God. Maybe that is better that they don't. That just don't need to talk about those they do not want to rub shoulders with. The issue is that if they had a relationship, more people would believe. Jesus hung with those who did not know the truth. He did not live they way they lived, but showed them how they should live. His life brought freedom. We should do the same. If we are living in freedom, individuals will want that freedom too.
All this babbling brings me to this point. One of my future endeavors will be to lead a small group of men who will want to walk to the beat of a different drum. Men who will be radical in a sense that they will turn their backs on their former life and live their lives totally different. They will abstain from those things that do not honor God. They will strive to be Godly at all costs. Be Holy. Love the Lord their God with everything in them. Love people the same way. Pray for power to minister, and walk in that power. I am looking for men who want to be generals. Will I find them? Let's hope so. People are dying with no hope. Who will rescue them if we don't?
Radical Christian
I like this "Tangle", great stuff. Here is another good video clip. I like the beginning of this clip the most. If we had this fervor, we would change the face of the world.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Jesus at Disney
Got this off of one of the daily emails I receive from "Breaking Christian News". Jesus is alive and well and miracles happened at of all places, Disneyland. They videos of this on YouTube.
When the "Magic Kingdom" Starts Looking Like God's Kingdom
Aimee Herd (June 23, 2009)
When a group of Christian youth visiting Disneyland pray for one young man and he's healed instantly, many other healings and salvations suddenly break out.
Jesus made a visit to Disneyland recently (in the form of healings and salvations), according to a blog by Jason Chin on the website for Bethel Church in Redding, CA. A small group from Bethel went down to Disneyland for a day of fun, but God had much more than that planned for them. As Jason says, "It made the happiest place on Earth even happier!" Read Jason's testimony below, and don't miss the YouTube video (below) which was recorded while the young people prayed for others in the food court at Disneyland's "Frontierland."
(Thursday, June 11th) Jason Chin's Testimony:
I went down to see my best friend, Jason Tax, in Los Angeles, just to visit for a week and hang out—and who knows what adventure the Holy Spirit might lead us into. Jay and I love to do street evangelism together. On the way down, I saw a Disneyland sign, and I remembered the times of lying on my bed dreaming with the Holy Spirit of revival inside the theme park. I thought, "Wow that would be cool if that ever happened for real."
I had the privilege of speaking at my friend's church on Wednesday night, and after the service, a lady asked me if I wanted a free ticket to Disneyland the following day. Yippie, Jesus. I thought, Wow! Those tickets are $94!
Jason Tax, Hanna Ford and I went to Disneyland to have a great day in the sun with the Son—and God set us up through one key miracle of a young man's shoulder that was in a sling. We approached him and asked if we could pray for healing. Jesus instantly, completely healed his shoulder, and he removed his sling and began to test it out. He started crying from God's goodness, and he told us how he could not raise it at all because of a fresh torn rotator cuff injury. He then started raising his arm over his head and moving it as freely as the other one. His friends explained how he is the star football player at their school and he would have had to take the entire year off from football after his scheduled surgery, so we explained the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the miracles to the group of eight or so, and they all got saved and filled with the Holy Spirit, and two of them got healed—one of scoliosis. The other had Jesus grow out his leg as his friends all looked on.
They all started freaking out, and the heavenly momentum hit and it erupted into an all-out Holy Spirit healing miracle service in the Disneyland food court for four and a half hours as groups of young people got their friends and brought them back to us for healing. They would come to us and say, "Can you heal this?" as they would point to a lump on their knee or a bad ankle. We would answer something like, "We cannot heal anything but Jesus can heal everything and that same Jesus is in you now, so everyone put your hand on this person and say, 'Be healed in Jesus' name! Now test it out.'" Really, that's how we prayed: "Be healed! Now test it out." Almost every healing was instant as the looks of shock appeared on the faces, then praise and cheers to Jesus would erupt from the crowd of youth!
Flat feet were healed as arches formed in front of everyone to witness. One girl was so scared as her friends dragged her up to us. She was almost crying from fear. We told her, "Hon, you have nothing to be afraid of. This is Jesus and He loves you very much." She had extreme scoliosis and a dislocated thumb that was in a hand brace. She was still very much afraid so we told her, "We won't even need to touch you because the glory is here. Just remove your brace and move your thumb around." She did and her thumb was instantly healed. We asked her to touch her toes and then check her back out. She did and her friends lifted up the back of her shirt to check out her spine. They all screamed because it was now perfectly straight. Jesus! We asked her if she knew Jesus, and she said no. We told her it was Jesus who just healed her and asked her if she would like to know that Jesus? She said yes, so she got saved and then we explained to her about being filled with the Holy Spirit and she said she wanted Him, too! So we asked her to put her hands out in front of her and say, "Holy Spirit, come and fill me up. I give my life to You." She started shaking under the power of God. God is soooo good!
We witnessed bone knots dissolve from knees, asthma healed, crooked knees straightened out, and eyes healed. Some protruding ribs were pulled back into the chest. Even gold dust showed up on many and three youths experienced supernatural weight loss as their once tight pants got looser and looser. Screams erupted as one man grew an inch taller while everyone looked on.
A super cool thing was how each kid got saved and then we prayed for them to be filled with the Holy Spirit and almost every kid felt a strong manifestation of the Holy Spirit like electricity, heat, tingling all over their bodies or a heavy, weighty presence.
They would then ask us questions like, "Can you make the sadness I feel leave the inside of me?" All their friends would say, "I feel that way, too," so we started praying in large groups, commanding depression to leave them and joy to come. Kids were crying, laughing, yelling "Jesus," saying things like, "I can't believe this! This is way better than any ride here!" Those kids were getting set free. We prayed for healing for the first few kids only. Then we taught the youth that the same Spirit dwells in each of them, and then we watched Jesus heal through their hands! We witnessed around 120-140 healings, most of them instant and about 100 or so decisions for Christ, of which 50 or so were first-time decisions, asking Jesus to forgive them of their sins. Yea, Jesus! One young man came up to me and said, "I never knew that Jesus died for me," and he yelled at the top of his lungs: "Jesus!"
When the "Magic Kingdom" Starts Looking Like God's Kingdom
Aimee Herd (June 23, 2009)
When a group of Christian youth visiting Disneyland pray for one young man and he's healed instantly, many other healings and salvations suddenly break out.
Jesus made a visit to Disneyland recently (in the form of healings and salvations), according to a blog by Jason Chin on the website for Bethel Church in Redding, CA. A small group from Bethel went down to Disneyland for a day of fun, but God had much more than that planned for them. As Jason says, "It made the happiest place on Earth even happier!" Read Jason's testimony below, and don't miss the YouTube video (below) which was recorded while the young people prayed for others in the food court at Disneyland's "Frontierland."
(Thursday, June 11th) Jason Chin's Testimony:
I went down to see my best friend, Jason Tax, in Los Angeles, just to visit for a week and hang out—and who knows what adventure the Holy Spirit might lead us into. Jay and I love to do street evangelism together. On the way down, I saw a Disneyland sign, and I remembered the times of lying on my bed dreaming with the Holy Spirit of revival inside the theme park. I thought, "Wow that would be cool if that ever happened for real."
I had the privilege of speaking at my friend's church on Wednesday night, and after the service, a lady asked me if I wanted a free ticket to Disneyland the following day. Yippie, Jesus. I thought, Wow! Those tickets are $94!
Jason Tax, Hanna Ford and I went to Disneyland to have a great day in the sun with the Son—and God set us up through one key miracle of a young man's shoulder that was in a sling. We approached him and asked if we could pray for healing. Jesus instantly, completely healed his shoulder, and he removed his sling and began to test it out. He started crying from God's goodness, and he told us how he could not raise it at all because of a fresh torn rotator cuff injury. He then started raising his arm over his head and moving it as freely as the other one. His friends explained how he is the star football player at their school and he would have had to take the entire year off from football after his scheduled surgery, so we explained the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the miracles to the group of eight or so, and they all got saved and filled with the Holy Spirit, and two of them got healed—one of scoliosis. The other had Jesus grow out his leg as his friends all looked on.
They all started freaking out, and the heavenly momentum hit and it erupted into an all-out Holy Spirit healing miracle service in the Disneyland food court for four and a half hours as groups of young people got their friends and brought them back to us for healing. They would come to us and say, "Can you heal this?" as they would point to a lump on their knee or a bad ankle. We would answer something like, "We cannot heal anything but Jesus can heal everything and that same Jesus is in you now, so everyone put your hand on this person and say, 'Be healed in Jesus' name! Now test it out.'" Really, that's how we prayed: "Be healed! Now test it out." Almost every healing was instant as the looks of shock appeared on the faces, then praise and cheers to Jesus would erupt from the crowd of youth!
Flat feet were healed as arches formed in front of everyone to witness. One girl was so scared as her friends dragged her up to us. She was almost crying from fear. We told her, "Hon, you have nothing to be afraid of. This is Jesus and He loves you very much." She had extreme scoliosis and a dislocated thumb that was in a hand brace. She was still very much afraid so we told her, "We won't even need to touch you because the glory is here. Just remove your brace and move your thumb around." She did and her thumb was instantly healed. We asked her to touch her toes and then check her back out. She did and her friends lifted up the back of her shirt to check out her spine. They all screamed because it was now perfectly straight. Jesus! We asked her if she knew Jesus, and she said no. We told her it was Jesus who just healed her and asked her if she would like to know that Jesus? She said yes, so she got saved and then we explained to her about being filled with the Holy Spirit and she said she wanted Him, too! So we asked her to put her hands out in front of her and say, "Holy Spirit, come and fill me up. I give my life to You." She started shaking under the power of God. God is soooo good!
We witnessed bone knots dissolve from knees, asthma healed, crooked knees straightened out, and eyes healed. Some protruding ribs were pulled back into the chest. Even gold dust showed up on many and three youths experienced supernatural weight loss as their once tight pants got looser and looser. Screams erupted as one man grew an inch taller while everyone looked on.
A super cool thing was how each kid got saved and then we prayed for them to be filled with the Holy Spirit and almost every kid felt a strong manifestation of the Holy Spirit like electricity, heat, tingling all over their bodies or a heavy, weighty presence.
They would then ask us questions like, "Can you make the sadness I feel leave the inside of me?" All their friends would say, "I feel that way, too," so we started praying in large groups, commanding depression to leave them and joy to come. Kids were crying, laughing, yelling "Jesus," saying things like, "I can't believe this! This is way better than any ride here!" Those kids were getting set free. We prayed for healing for the first few kids only. Then we taught the youth that the same Spirit dwells in each of them, and then we watched Jesus heal through their hands! We witnessed around 120-140 healings, most of them instant and about 100 or so decisions for Christ, of which 50 or so were first-time decisions, asking Jesus to forgive them of their sins. Yea, Jesus! One young man came up to me and said, "I never knew that Jesus died for me," and he yelled at the top of his lungs: "Jesus!"
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