The Key to Consistency

I remember the first time I ever prayed for someone with a serious condition, and actually expected anything to happen:

I was 18 years old and I had just finished reading John Wimber's book Power Healing. For weeks afterwards I sensed God speaking to me, telling me to go pray for a fellow college student who had gone blind due to diabetes. Of course I resisted! In my mind, it was far too risky to walk up to a blind person and ask him if I could pray for him to receive his sight right there. What if it didn't work and I looked like a complete idiot?

But the Holy Spirit kept pulling on my heart, teling me He was in this thing. Sometimes, I would work up the guts to do it for a brief moment. I would walk up to the man with great confidence, only to turn away at the last second (I figured since he was blind he would never know I was there!)

Then one day, it occurred to me: I either believe this stuff or I don't. It was time to either go big or go home. After a meeting one morning, I found the student and told him that I sensed I was supposed to pray for him. As I invited the Holy Spirit's Presence, he was thrown back in his seat, power surged through him, and heat began to radiate out from behind his eyes. My first thought was: "It really works!"

We continued to pray, and the man began seeing shades of light as God touched him. The healing had begun progressively, and I was immediately ruined for anything less than the message and ministry of Jesus. After what happened that day, I could never go back!

Since that time, I've seen hundreds of tremendous demonstrations of power, and I've seen long stretches of time where we've prayed and absolutely nothing has happened. In fact, sometimes people get worse or even die.

How do we keep our expectation strong in those times when God doesn't seem to be breaking through?

I think the key is to remember that this is the mission Jesus has given us. He's told us to announce the Kingdom, to heal the sick, to drive out demons and do all the things that He does. This is His initiative. Our call is to simply obey Him and take the risk to step out when we sense Him speaking to us.

Let's just do this for the next 100 years or so, and you will see far too much to ever turn back. Keep following with everything you've got!

The Kingdom Announcement

Over the course of the past 7 weeks, I've been teaching a VBI course on the Kingdom of God at the Halifax Vineyard. We have a number of students working on a Diploma in Kingdom Theology through VBI, and this class is one of the required credits.

During last night's class, we explored our call to announce the presence of the Kingdom of God, and out of that announcement, to do the ministry of the Kingdom.

As we were nearing the end of the lecture, there was a tangible sense of angels moving around the room. I had everyone stand up, and then I simply invited this Kingdom that we've been studying to come in a tangible way "on earth like it is in heaven."

The Spirit of God began touching people powerfully through prophetic words and healings. Power surged through different ones as God encountered them. One of our students was standing by herself near her desk with her hands open, when she was hit by such power that she fell backwards to the concrete floor and hit with tremendous impact! She was totally unharmed, and as she lay there the Spirit of God empowered her dramatically.

Other students were released from hindrances and experienced the Presence of the Holy Spirit with weeping, supernatural joy, and powerful shaking.

A woman with an injured tailbone was healed, as the Spirit of God swept across the room. This was a great theology class!

When we expect God's kingdom to come, pray for the kingdom to break in, and announce its presence through the Holy Spirit, so often we see these wonderful demonstrations of God's mercy toward us.

Let's keep doing this everywhere we go!

Some New Stories

I spent most of the day on Saturday with a group of people @ the Halifax Vineyard doing some talks on what it means to be filled with Holy Spirit. It was part of the Alpha Holy Spirit Weekend, and I had such a great time!

The premise was simple: Jesus wants to empower all of us by His Spirit so that we begin to do the things that he does. After the teaching time, we invited the Holy Spirit to come and some incredible things took place:

-The weight of God's presence rested on one woman so powerfully she was unable to move at all. As she stood there she experienced the love of Jesus washing over her. For months prior to this encounter she had suffered from a chronic infection, but as people surrounded her and prayed, she felt the power of God surge through her body and the pain and infection left immediately.

-Another young woman who just gave her life to Jesus, was filled with the power of God and energized with the tremendous joy that only comes from His Presence. She had no pre-conceived notions about how you're supposed to react when God comes close to you; she simply experienced the Holy Spirit touching her, and was absolutely revolutionized by His power.

-Prophetic words of encouragement started flowing and God spoke into their lives in ways that resonated powerfully.

Then last night we did a youth gathering for the high school and junior high group. I talked a little on hearing God's voice and developing a relationship with the Holy Spirit, then we modeled the ministry by giving prophetic words. The Spirit of God broke into the room and kids were empowered! They began prophesying to one another, and got words of knowledge for the sick.

A girl was there who has not really engaged a lot with the God stuff in the past. She responded to a word of knowledge from a junior high kid named Zack, and as we prayed for her, the power of God came on her. Her injured ankle was immediately healed and it was so much fun watching her wondering where her pain went! She moved her ankle around, got a confused look on her face and said, "It was just hurting when I walked up here- now it's better!" I got to share with her about the mercy of Jesus and she was profoudly impacted.

Kids were still getting words and praying for each other as their parents arrived to pick them up, and it hit me that this mandate to equip the whole church in every generation is one of the greatest things we could ever join up with! Just do it everywhere you go, and before long you'll be ruined for anything else!

A Day at the Office

So this move to the Atlantic Coast of Canada has been filled with God stories. From the very beginning (you can read about it in my first post An Unusual Journey) God has been obviously present in every detail.

About 3 weeks ago I was hired as a Human Resources Advisor for a large organization in Halifax. The way doors opened up around this can only be explained by His favor on the whole process. Education wise-I didn't have the professional HR designation they were looking for, and I had no formal experience in human resources. And yet somehow, out of 200 quality applicants, they chose to hire a Vineyard pastor who followed the voice of God from Kansas City to Halifax as their HR representative!

Of course the job offer came at the last possible minute; just as all our savings were about to disappear. That seems to be the way it works when we step out in faith. It was one more divine event to add to the ongoing story of God's activity around this move.

Well, all day yesterday and today, I was networking at a healthcare conference at the Delta Hotel in Halifax (pictured above). As I was talking to one of the professionals from the Red Cross, she began asking me about my background and the story of how we got here. I told her all the God stories: the ways He called us here, the perfect timing for everything, the favor we've experienced in the Halifax Vineyard, etc. (It turns out, she's been to the Halifax Vineyard's cafe and ice cream shop, and really "likes the vibe" around there).

As I told her story after story of God's leading and faithfulness, you could see her heart engaging with what His Spirit was doing. When she commented on how risky this dramatic move was, I shared with her that we only get one shot in this life to trust God for anything. Isn't it worth going for?

She was so excited, and walked away with a sense of something bigger than ourselves going on. I walked away with a sense of how important it is to our world that we tell our stories of God at work. Let's tell our stories everywhere we go, to everyone we meet, and watch what happens as a result.

Kingdom Ministry With Kids

I just finished teaching at the Halifax Vineyard youth group. Tonight we told stories from Mark chapter 1 about Jesus' announcement that the Kingdom of God has come near to us. It's not simply a comforting biblical thought, or a concept to talk about in church gatherings, it's a powerful reality of God being actively at work among us.

So after looking at the stories of Jesus announcing and demonstrating the powerful rule of God, we put the words into action:

The Spirit of God gave words of knowledge for a swollen throat, and 2 teenage girls responded. The power of God came on both of them, and their pain instantly disappeared. A whole bunch of kids expressed their desire to follow Jesus whole-heartedly, and give everything they've got to this kingdom thing. We prayed empowering prayers over them, giving them prophetic words of encouragement, and asking God's Spirit to fill them with His love.

As i looked around the room and saw all these young people laying their hands on their friends and inviting the Holy Spirit, I realized that this is a huge part of what making disciples is all about.

I love this stuff! I absolutely love it! I can't think of any other way I'd want to spend the rest of my life, than to share the message and ministry of Jesus with a group of kids that are hungry for something real.

A Life of Apprenticeship

This is the beach at Malagash camp where we held our regional youth retreat for the Atlantic Vineyard Churches this past weekend.
On Saturday night I talked about the reality that living as apprentices of Jesus means not only obeying his words, but also doing his works.
Our premise is simply that because of Jesus' arrival, the kingdom of God (God's power to rule) has come close to us in this world. As a result of that nearness of God's Spirit, there are tangible signs of His rule among us: sick people get well, demonic chokeholds are broken, nature submits to God's authority, dead people get up and walk around again, and mercy is extended to the needy. All throughout the Gospels, these things happen everywhere that Jesus goes.

It becomes really clear in the life of Jesus, that his intention has always been to pass this message and ministry of the kingdom on to those of us who follow him. So we see commissioning texts like Matthew 10, Luke 9, Luke 10, John 20, Matthew 28.

Well on Saturday night, we called a group of teenagers from Atlantic Canada to give their whole lives to this thing; a life of walking with Jesus, obeying his words and doing his works. The Spirit of God came with intense empowering, breaking chains of depression and negative self-images. Then the kids began to pray for their friends. Here's a few of the things that happened:

-A girl was there who had suffered with a chronic knee condition that caused her intense pain. As a group came around and prayed for her, she felt tremendous energy surging through her legs and the bones and tissue inside her knees began shifting. She was overwhelmed by the mercy of Jesus, all the pain left, and when she woke up in the morning (normally the worst time for pain) she was completely pain free.

-Some kids prayed for a boy named Chris who had sprained his ankle. As they prayed, they felt the ankle physically shifting and he was immediately well.

- God gave a word of knowledge for scoliosis of the spine. A 17 year old girl responded and as as we prayed, her spine straightened and her pain immediately left. I followed up with her later, and she remained completely pain free.

-Kids were delivered from fear and nightmares, they began getting words from God, and worship broke out in a huge way- no one wanted to stop singing to Jesus! It was a wonderful way to celebrate God's presence among us!

See, if all this is real, and we have the invitation to live in the presence of God's Spirit and to give away His life to the people around us , why would we want to do anything less with our lives?

Kingdom Stories

One of my favorite stories in the New Testament is in Luke chapter 5 where Jesus is in someone's living room teaching, and the Spirit of God breaks through to touch people. Luke 5:17 describes it like this:

"One day he was in the house teaching, and the power of the Lord was present to heal the sick."

Moments like this happen regularly throughout the ministry of Jesus. He walks into an environment, looks for what the Spirit of God is doing there, and simply joins up with that.
Luke 6 tells the story of Jesus standing outside and the power of God coming around him so strongly that people pushed through the crowds just to touch him. The results were phenomenal: people with all sorts of chronic conditions, illnesses and demonic obstacles in their lives were being healed by the manifest presence of the Spirit of God on Jesus' life. These are some demonstrations (or signs) of the in-breaking of the Kingdom of God into our world.

Well, our commission is the same as Jesus' commission: to announce the kingdom's presence and to do the ministry of the kingdom (make disciples, heal the sick, drive out demons, take authority over nature, care for the needy, show love and mercy, raise the dead, and all the other wonderful stuff of the New Testament). Now, I think if we're going to have any success at all in this mission we've been given, we'd do well to learn from Jesus and become sensitive to those times when the Spirit of God becomes present in a manifest way for a specific purpose (ie: healing the sick).

We've seen God move like this several times over the last couple of weeks:

-Daniel, the friend I wrote about in my last post who came to the equipping class at the Halifax Vineyard, just sent me a message yesterday saying that his doctor ran additional tests, and it's medically verified that he has been healed of diabetes. After more than 5 years with the disease, it is completely gone and his body is operating normally!

-Daniel and Evelyn's friend who had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer also found out she was pregnant. Doctors had little hope for her or the baby's future. But as a group of us came around and prayed for her and the baby, the power of God came on her. The prognosis has now changed for her and the baby. She's feeling great, and the baby is perfectly healthy and able to be born safely.

-I taught at a youth gathering last night where we told stories about Jesus' ministry today, and then invited the presence of God's Spirit.
The students got words of knowledge for physical conditions, they prayed for their friends' sicknesses and saw God show up.
Demonic oppression was broken: as one kid fell on the floor and was writhing in pain we spoke to the opposing force with the authority Jesus gives us, and it left immediately.
Other students were empowered tremendously by the Spirit of God, shaking as His power surged through them, filling them with His Presence.

God is actively at work all around us. We have been given the ministry of Jesus! Let's begin to look for those moments where the Spirit of God becomes manifestly present to demonstrate his rule to every group of people on earth.

Building Bridges

Jesus taught us so well that God is always at work all around us (John 5:19). He's always working to draw us to himself, to touch and heal people's lives, to expand the presence of his kingdom. If we will simply look for God in our midst, we'll see him at work and be able to join in what he's doing at that moment. This became evident to me again over the past couple of weeks:

Daniel is a new friend of mine from a Native Canadian background. One day a number of weeks back he and his wife were driving in their car listening to a Vineyard cd. The disk was scratched and so when he got home, he Googled the Vineyard in Canada to see if he could order a replacement cd. He came across the Halifax Vineyard site and decided to visit the church that weekend. He enjoyed his time and decided to come back that night for the equipping class I was leading on Kingdom Ministry.

That first night during the ministry clinic, someone received a word of knowledge, and Daniel was healed of diabetes. He went to his doctor, and the blood sugar that had previously been sitting at around 25 for a couple of years was now around 5. His doctor ran tests and informed him that there is no sign of diabetes. He has gone off his medication and is completely healthy!

Well, Daniel and his wife shared the story of how Jesus healed him with some of their friends from the Aboriginal community. One of these friends had recently been diagnosed with a severe form of cancer, and after hearing how God worked in Daniel's life with power, she was open to receive prayer. Daniel suggested that we all get together at their place, have some dinner and pray for her. At first there was some uncertainty when she found out that we were not Native, but she accepted, and
we all gathered at Daniel and Evelyn's for a barbecue.

After dinner as we prayed for her, the manifest presence of God came around her and she began to feel His power surging though her. The area where the cancer was grew incredibly hot and it was evident that God was at work.
We spoke to the condition with the authority that Jesus has given, and had the opportunity to share some prophetic words for her concerning what god has made her for. Angels showed up in the room, and the environment was like Luke 5:17 where it says "the power of the Lord was present to heal the sick."
After praying for her, this woman with tears in her eyes, embraced us so warmly and said, "I'd like to come to your church." She showed up on Sunday morning where everything that went on seemed like it was tailor-made just for her, and received more ministry.

The latest news from her today is that she's "doing better and feeling good." Apparently her doctor's appointment went really well and she received a good report. I'll tell more of the story as it unfolds.

Jesus loves to touch the people around us. When his kingdom breaks in, cultures are transcended, walls between ethnic groups come down, and bridges are built that brings a community of the kingdom together. I'm excited to see the reconciliation that happens around this.

Equipping a New Generation

On Sunday I had the tremendous privilege of doing a hands on healing training with a group of kids ranging in age from 5-11. We began with Luke 9:1-
"One day Jesus called together his twelve disciples and gave them power and authority to cast out all demons and to heal all diseases."

In the course of our conversation we discovered that:
1) Power is the ability to do something AND
2) Authority is being allowed (authorized) to do it
(I told them- "I have the power to take your bike and ride it around the neighborhood, BUT if you don't tell me I'm allowed to ride your bike, then I don't have authority to do it").

Very simply, Jesus has given his followers both the ability and the authorization to do His works in our world.

Well, if all this is true- if the ministry of Jesus has really been extended to His followers - then it has to work for ALL of us, doesn't it? Even a group of 6 year olds from the Maritimes!

See, Jesus said in John 14:12, "ANYONE who believes in me will do the same works I have been doing... ." Now, maybe I'm missing something, but I think when Jesus says "anyone" he really means "anyone." Not just the people over 30, or the theologically educated, or even those who can tie their shoes by themselves.

So we invited Jesus to empower this group of children to heal the sick and the hurting right there in that room. And it worked!

Here's a few stories of what went on:
One of the kids got a word of knowledge for a sprained ankle. A young girl had fallen off her bike earlier in the week and injured her ankle in that way. A group of children came around her, prayed with the power and authority Jesus has given them, and her pain instantly left.

Another boy saw a picture of a painful red dot in the middle of someone's forehead. A boy in the group came up and said he had smashed his head into a metal pole and had pain in that exact spot. As the kids prayed, the Holy Spirit rested on him and his pain left.

A girl with terrible pain in her right leg came and was prayed for by a group of 5-9 year old girls. Her muscles had been seized up, causing great discomfort. The power of God came on her and her condition disappeared immediately! Afterwards she was able to move her leg freely.

Experiencing God at work deposits something of his kingdom into our hearts that is hard to shake. These children have been given the same commission we have: To live out the message and ministry of Jesus in their everyday lives. My prayer is that they get hooked for a lifetime and one day begin to train others.

Vineyard Video

Vineyard USA put this together for their 25th anniversary celebration. I think they've done a great job with it. Check it out.


Vineyard USA 25th Anniversary from Vineyard USA on Vimeo.

A Return to Our Roots

If you've been around this group of churches called the Vineyard long enough to hear the stories, you'll know that this whole kingdom movement was really launched by a group of young people who had a dramatic encounter with the Spirit of God.
In short, Lonnie Frisbee visited the Calvary Chapel in Yorba Linda, California, called everyone under the age of 25 to the front of the gym, and invited the power of God to visit them. The results were dramatic- kids began healing the sick and getting prophetic words, introducing their friends to Jesus and going on ministry trips to pray for people around the world.

John Wimber embraced this empowering and went on to train people all over the world to obey Jesus' words AND to do Jesus' works.
Healing and empowering were essential aspects of the early Vineyard because it's the reality that we see throughout the New Testament.
When I was 18 years old, this thing that we call Kingdom Ministry absolutely hooked my heart. I knew I was in it forever- I'd been drafted!

Last night we got together with a group of young people from the Halifax Vineyard. There were maybe 25 kids there and a group of youth leaders. We played some games, ate some food and then we worshipped Jesus, and talked about how He calls each of us to do His ministry.

After I told some stories about seeing God at work, we asked Him to give words of knowledge about physical conditions He wanted to touch. A 12 year old boy with chronic asthma responded and a group of kids came around and prayed for him. The power of God hit him and his whole body began shaking with tremendous energy. (It's always remarkable to see the same phenomena occur in vastly different groups around the world whenever God touches people; As far as i know, this young man had no grid for any of this). Anyway, his breathing immediately improved, and he went on to pray for other kids in the room.

The Holy Spirit was touching kids around the room, healing conditions and empowering them in dramatic ways. Times change, movements change, but there are some core values that must never escape us. Learning to do the ministry of Jesus is one of these!

We're going into the elementary Sunday School class this week to train the little children to pray for the sick as well. I'll post an update soon.

Hearing God's Voice

Last night was the final week of our Sunday night equipping seminars @ the Halifax Vineyard. I talked on a practical level about hearing the voice of God as the basis to every spiritual gift. Very simply, when we learn to hear and obey God's voice, all sorts of powerful things begin to happen through us. Healings, prophecies, encouragement, miracles, words of knowledge and wisdom etc- all of these are the results of listening to what God wants to do in the moment and then stepping out and taking the risk to obey what we hear.

See, Jesus only did what he saw his Father doing (John 5:19). That means as Jesus would hear the Father's voice in the context of intimacy and see something that God desired to do, he simply did that thing.
Sometimes the result was opening a pair of blind eyes, other times it was telling a demon to leave. Sometimes it meant speaking to a wind and rain storm, or forgiving someone's sins, or raising a dead person back to life. Multiplying bread, turning water to wine and announcing the kingdom's arrival all began with the ability to listen and respond to these little nudges from God's Spirit.

Well, after the teaching it was time to put the words into practice and do the works. We brought a couple of people up in front of the group, and took the time to ask the God what he wanted to say to them. As the group sensed the Holy Spirit speaking, they shared what they heard. The result was tremendous encouragement for everyone involved. God came near with prophetic gifts to a group of ordinary people who weren't even wearing their TV evangelist costumes!

I'm speaking at a youth gathering tomorrow night on doing the ministry of Jesus. I have a really good sense about it. More to follow...

Bringing Freedom to People

If you read the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke in the New Testament), an unusual event seems to occur over and over again:
Jesus goes into a place, announces the Good News that God has come near to people, and all of a sudden, evil forces seem to come out of hiding.

We see an example of this in Mark chapter 1-
Jesus is in a synagogue teaching with tremendous authority, when an evil spirit shrieks out through a man, "What do you want with us Jesus? Have you come to destroy us?!" This appears to be the inaugural power encounter that sets a whole kingdom movement in motion.

It quickly becomes evident that whenever the Good News that God has come near to people is announced, demonic forces lose their composure and come to the surface. It's nothing to get all worked up about, it's simply a part of doing the works of Jesus.

Recently @ a training seminar, I was talking about the nearness of God's rule, and how He touches our lives. In the midst of this, a demonic force manifested in someone. Now, when something "supernatural" like that happens, often the tendency is for people around them to get all worked up emotionally and everybody starts talking at once.

Jesus is much more relaxed about these kinds of things! And I suspect that his model is the best one for us to pattern ourselves after. We never see him running out to buy a tin foil hat, or stomping around a room shouting and screaming...
In every case he simply tells the opposing forces to stop acting out and to be quiet, and then He tells them to leave.

So this is what we did. And it worked because Jesus has given his ministry to each of us who follow him.

It's one of the most beautiful things in the world to see the Spirit of God bring freedom to a person that was being oppressed and injured by the enemy. Once they were bound up and felt shameful and unloved. But Jesus encountered them in that state and brought them into a wonderful freedom.

We have a call to do his works, whenever and wherever they're needed. It's a wonderful privilege, and I'm in for life.

Training Update

This past Sunday night was the first week of the training class I'm doing at the Halifax Vineyard. There was a great group of people, and we all got together to explore God's tremendous invitation to us to join Jesus in his mission.

One of the key emphases of the night was that Jesus came with both the announcement of the kingdom (God is arriving with power and he has the right to rule), and the actions of the kingdom. The ministry of Jesus is Words AND Works, a Message AND a Ministry.

When Jesus tells people that the rule of God has come near to them, he also demonstrates that rule through what we call the signs of the kingdom's presence: healing the sick, driving out demons, works of compassion, caring for the poor, forgiving sin, authority over nature, and raising the dead. This is the way it's done throughout the Gospels. Jesus teaches/announces the kingdom's presence and then allows that dynamically present kingdom to come to people in need.

On Sunday night, we explored the reality that as followers of Jesus, we have been given the same mandate of announcing a message and doing a ministry. So,after looking at the words, we tried out the works. Somehow I am always amazed that it works for people like us!

A lot of people in the room were prayed for, but here's a couple of stories:

-During the clinic time, there was a word of knowledge for someone with chronic headaches. A woman who had suffered from daily tension headaches responded and a group gathered around her and invited God's kingdom to come to her specifically. She experienced tremendous power going through her and her headache immediately lifted. With tears flowing down her face, she was reminded again how near Jesus is to us.

-A young mom brought her newborn baby who was suffering with intestinal discomfort. As the infant was prayed for there was immediate and dramatic relief. She became perfectly happy and able to rest.

The training runs for another 3 weeks. This week we're looking at how we're empowered. I'll write more in the days to come.

Kingdom Story Telling

A lot of vision has been developing for me out of Psalm 78 lately. It's all about passing on "kingdom stories" to the next generation. Here's an excerpt:

"...I will speak to you in a parable. I will teach you hidden lessons from our past- stories we have heard and known, stories our ancestors handed down to us. We will not hide these truths from our children; we will tell the next generation about the glorious deeds of the LORD, about his power and his mighty wonders...

so the next generation might know them-even children not yet born-and they in turn will teach their own children. So each generation should set its hope anew on God, not forgetting his glorious miracles and obeying his commands." Psalm 78:2-7


In the Vineyard, we were launched out of a tremendous outpouring of power. The experience of so many in the early days of our movement reads like the pages of the New Testament: sick people got well, demons came out, people encountered God in real ways.

I remember as a teenager and young adult, I latched on to these stories; I was so intrigued.
And in the process of listening to them being told and re-told, something mysterious happened:
I saw the treasure in the field and I knew that I had to give my whole life to this thing.

I had to do all the things Jesus has authorized his followers to do:
I had to heal the sick and drive out demons and take authority over nature, and learn to hear God's voice. And I had to teach others to do the same things.

We saw this happen with groups of teenagers in Kansas City. We'd tell the stories of Jesus and then put them into action. I'll never forget watching skin instantly grow back over open sores, deaf ears opening, a little boy in a wheelchair getting up and walking for the first time, chronic conditions being healed, and powerful prophetic words being delivered- all in response to the prayers of some regular kids who still hadn't finished their homework.

We must never stop telling stories of God at work. It's the first step in the next generations discovering Jesus and His Kingdom, and taking this thing and running with it.

We're about to start this up here in Halifax. I met with some leaders today and in the next few weeks we're going to get groups of young people together, tell our stories and then simply try this stuff out. I have great confidence that God's Spirit is on it.
I'll post more as these things develop.

Our Next Steps

I love this picture! I remember seeing this sign as we crossed into Nova Scotia near the end of our 35 hour drive from Kansas City, and welling up with an incredible excitement; we were actually doing this thing! For me, there was a sense of stepping into the larger story of God at work in an area. There was a sense of the Kingdom advancing.

Well, living under the active rule of God in our lives always engages us in an incredible tension:

On the one hand, God has spoken. We've experienced sort of a charismatic catharsis inside us, and there's a sense of great favor and empowering in the Spirit that takes place. During these times, we can immediately become convinced that from now on we'll essentially live in the third heaven, coming down to earth from time to time for an occasional Starbucks run.

However, what we discover as the journey unfolds is that responding to the voice of God tends to work differently than that. Often there are very mundane things attached to our new seasons of life; things like unpacking boxes, sorting out trash from recycling, and lifting heavy objects to move them to new locations. Then in the midst of these things, we experience God breaking in around us with tremendous power.

This has always been the way it's worked for people who sense God speaking to them:

Moses had these dramatic encounters with the manifest presence of God, and then spent much of his time simply doing hard work like walking through a desert, organizing groups and administrating food service for a group of complainers.

Paul would raise the dead one day, and have to go make some Coleman tents for the Boy Scouts group the next day.

Our new adventure into Halifax is a wonderful combination of both the Natural and the Supernatural . On one level we're doing the hard work of transition- moving, looking for work, planning, getting provincial driver's licences etc. And yet all the while God is doing things.

In the 17 days that we've been here:

-I've told the story of God's leading to a guy in the Shell station- (He asked- "Are you really from Kansas!? What the heck are you doing way up here for?"). As I explained it, he got so excited to hear what was going on. (It reminds me of John Wimber's advice to church planters: "Tell your story everywhere you go. Tell it to anyone who will listen. Tell them why you're here, and what God has spoken to you." There's definitely something about that that can grab people's hearts and allow them to see the treasure of the kingdom).

-We've been able to give words of knowledge for healing to people and pray for the sick with demonstrations of power.

-I've been invited to do a 4 week training on Intimacy with God and Empowering in the Spirit beginning later this month on Sunday nights.

-God has been giving intense vision about training young leaders in the area to do the ministry of Jesus; learning to heal the sick and move in authority and spiritual gifts.

So much has been happening already. What have I learned?

Very simply, in the course of it all, I've become convinced that in everything we're doing, we must look for and invite and expect the arrival of the kingdom. As we do, God will work in great ways around all of us.

An Unusual Journey

As a teacher and a story teller, I love narratives about men and women who, in the midst of regular life, hear the voice of God, and it absolutely transforms everything.

So many times, I've told the story of Abraham and Sarah:

A couple of senior citizens, sitting out on their porch one day planning their Alaskan cruise, when God shows up! He tells them to leave the comfort and familiarity of everything they know, and to go to the place that He'll show them. They didn't even know what lay ahead, they simply knew that if God was in it, that's where they wanted to be.

This journey to the Atlantic Coast of Canada has been much like this for our family. What would cause well-established leaders to uproot from a spiritual community in Kansas City where God was at work, and circumstances were going well, to set out for a place that's largely unknown and there are no guarantees of anything? If we're not on drugs and we haven't lost our minds, why would we do something like this?
Well, looking back over the journey, we see it's been the voice of God. The story goes like this:

1) In the summer of 2005 we took a trip to the east coast of Canada for the first time. As I was sitting on the rocks @ a place called Peggy’s Cove in Nova Scotia talking to God, I felt the distinct impression that I was going to live there. Almost immediately after that Jen turned to me and said, “I want to live here.”

I figured, "That's just what people do on vacations! Everyone thinks they want to live in a beautiful place that they visit for the first time!"

But a few minutes later, the swirl continued...

2) Jen went into the post office in Peggy's Cove, the exact same place she had gone 23 years earlier as a 7 year old girl, and she met the same lady there that she met when she was 7!

This was either a really strange coincidence or something was stirring.

3) Just a day or so later we went to a historic church in Halifax on a tour. I met the tour guide and struck up a conversation. He said “I moved out here from Victoria, B.C. (my home city) 15 years ago." As we talked, I learned he had been a part of the church I grew up in and my parents are still active part of today.

4) That Sunday we visited the St. Croix Vineyard in New Brunswick. Gary and Joy Best and their family just happened to be there on vacation. In talking to them, we discovered they were visiting the same places we were in a different order.

Either God was at work, or I had somehow just stepped into an M. Night Shyamalan movie...

See, these things are what we know as “divine appointments.” God is setting up the circumstances around us. They're often very unusual, and you can feel the presence of God in them as they happen.

5) As we visited the Vineyard that day, Peter Fitch, the lead pastor there and Dean of St. Stephen's University told us about a group of Scottish Presbyterians on the Atlantic coast who had been praying and were waiting for a great move of God in their region. As he spoke, something inside us knew that we had a part to play in this.

6) We arrived back in Kansas City, and over the coming weeks we just kept sensing this draw to the east coast of Canada. It was very unusual. Through a prophetic puzzle of sorts, God had deposited something into our hearts that we could not shake.

7) The sense of calling continued, and then a little over 2 months later, my friend John MacGirvin, not knowing the things that had developed in our lives, prophesied to me: “You came from the west, but you’re going to the east. There’s a move of God coming to the Vineyard in Eastern Canada and you'll be a part of it. It's a healing movement that will start in the east and move across the nation to the west. " He also said “East is Best. And Best is East. There’s something around Gary Best that is significant in this time." (It was a short time later that Gary and Joy Best relocated from the West Coast of Canada to the East.)

8) In December 2005, I had a dream where a messenger appeared and said to me “Call Larry Levy.” Larry is the senior leader of the Halifax Metro Vineyard in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

9) While I would never endorse playing Bible roulette, in January of 2006, I was praying about Halifax, and had an impression that if I opened my Bible God would give me something about the ocean as a sign. I immediately opened the Bible to Psalm 29:3 “The voice of the LORD is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the LORD thunders over the mighty waters."

I thought- "That's got to be random chance- I'm going to try that again":
I opened Bible again to Habakkuk 2:14 “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.

10) That same day, I shared the sense of a call to the city of Halifax with Mark Warner, our senior leader at the Vineyard in Kansas City. He looked at me and said, “I’m reading a book about Halifax right now!”

Confidence continued to grow that God was setting this whole thing up!

11) The next month I was driving and praying about going to the east coast of Canada. A car pulled in front and license plate read “LITEHOUSE.” (The lighthouse is synomous with the Atlantic Coast). These were all tokens; kisses from God reminding us that He’s at work in the midst of this.

12) In March of 2006 John MacGirvin prophesied again. He said he saw that I had been plowing a field for about 3.5 years and experiencing a time of harvest. Then he saw me entering a season of rest and refreshing for a short time before another season of plowing began. He reiterated that I’d have a part to play in the healing revival coming to the Vineyard in Eastern Canada. He saw the work expanding into many different fields (places throughout the nation).

13) I suppose I take a lot of convincing because later that month I was asking God if we were really supposed to leave Kansas City and go east. Immediately a car pulled up in front of me, and the license plate read “CYA BYE.”

14) We went to Vineyard Canada’s National Conference which took place in Halifax region in the summer of 2006. God's Spirit was with us powerfully, and we saw remarkable healings and prophetic revelation take place in a number of ministry times. There was a sense of something significant happening there.

15) During the week we were out for the conference, we visited the Halifax Vineyard two weeks in a row. We immediately felt right at home and engaged in ministry times with the kingdom of God breaking in with words of knowledge and healing.

Those were just a few of the events that have led us this far. We arrived in Halifax 10 days ago, and we're beginning to find our feet in the midst of boxes and chaos!
We have a great sense of God at work.
One of the things I've learned is that if we keep our eyes open, and our hearts attentive, we'll discover He's doing things all around us. Saty tuned for more as the journey unfolds...