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.