Breaking Up Ground

Early on in 2006 a friend of mine, John MacGirvin, gave me a prophetic word about coming to the east coast of Canada:

He said, "I saw you out in a field plowing really hard for about 3 and a half years, coming into a short season of rest, and then going out to plow another field in preparation for a healing revival on the East Coast of Canada."

The first part of this word unfolded just like that- we worked incredibly hard in Kansas City for 3 and half years, focusing on breaking up ground, healing hurting people, and teaching the words and works of Jesus. When it was difficult we pushed forward because we were absolutely committed to see the kingdom break in to that environment.

Then, somewhere around the 3.5 year mark, things got easier: more people got healed, there was a great deal of favor in the community, spiritual gifts were breaking out and the power of God was touching people. For just over a year, it felt like a season of rest. Although we continued to work, it seemed like easier work than it was when we first started out.

Well, in the Spring of 2008 we moved to Halifax and phase 2 began. For 10 months now we have been breaking up ground on the East Coast- pushing into spiritual gifts, the reality of Jesus and His Kingdom, and the manifest presence of God. Already we've seen wonderful signs of breakthrough: physical healings, demonic oppression lifting off people, growing expectation, and an increased awareness of the Holy Spirit's presence. At times it's difficult to keep pushing forward, but I'm continually reminded of Paul's words in Galatians chapter 6: "Don't become weary of doing good because at the right time, we'll reap a harvest if we do not give up."

I'm looking forward to seeing what will grow out of what we're planting right now...

When Jesus Comes to Town

There’s a wonderful dynamic in the Gospels that occurs whenever Jesus visits a neighborhood: people get healed of sicknesses, demons come out in dramatic ways, and the mercy of God touches the lives of individuals in a powerful way.

Last night at our youth gathering @ Halifax Vineyard, I taught from Luke chapter 4:38-on what it looks like when Jesus comes to town:

After leaving the synagogue that day, Jesus went to Simon’s home, where he found Simon’s mother-in-law very sick with a high fever. “Please heal her,” everyone begged. Standing at her bedside, he rebuked the fever, and it left her. And she got up at once and prepared a meal for them.

As the sun went down that evening, people throughout the village brought sick family members to Jesus. No matter what their diseases were, the touch of his hand healed every one. Many were possessed by demons; and the demons came out at his command, shouting, “You are the Son of God!” But because they knew he was the Messiah, he rebuked them and refused to let them speak.

Early the next morning Jesus went out to an isolated place. The crowds searched everywhere for him, and when they finally found him, they begged him not to leave them. But he replied, “I must preach the Good News of the Kingdom of God in other towns, too, because that is why I was sent.”

Jesus constantly modeled “in the moment ministry”; wherever He went He brought the reality of the Kingdom of God to people.

I love the image of Jesus and His friends going for fish sticks at Pete’s house after church one day, discovering Pete’s mother in law has a fever, and so Jesus simply speaks to the fever and tells it to stop. The remarkable thing is that it leaves immediately.

Well, I guess the lady started text messaging her friends or something, because soon after there was a whole crowd of people at the door. And Jesus touches them in the power of the Holy Spirit, heals all of their diseases and drives out a whole bunch of evil spirits.

See, this is normal life for followers of Jesus. Wherever we are- we bring Jesus’ authority and empowering to both announce His rule and to demonstrate his rule. We see this over and over again in the pages of the New Testament, particularly in the book of Acts in the life of Peter, Stephen, Philip, Paul etc.

So last night with this group of about 25 teenagers and young adults, I told stories of the things I’ve seen Jesus do when it comes to healing the sick: skin growing back over open wounds, heart conditions disappearing, cysts dissolving instantly, injured bones and tendons instantly restored, blind eyes experiencing healing, crooked spines straightening, diseases being miraculously healed etc. Then we made space for words of knowledge to see what God wanted to touch.

The first girl we prayed for had severe headaches on a regular basis. Throughout the talk she had been disengaged and distracted, and the Lord spoke very clearly to me that He was about to do something powerful with her.

When we called her up to get prayed for, all of that changed. As God’s presence came to her, the power of the Holy Spirit touched her. We gave her prophetic words about her life and the destiny God has for her, and it was like she came alive. For the rest of the night she was praying for other people, completely engaged in the ministry time.

We gave prophetic words to a large number of students, telling them things only God could know, and they experienced his presence in dramatic ways as we spoke. Kids that were oppressed experienced freedom as demons left.

Driving home that night, it hit me again- I love this life that Jesus has called us to! Being with Him and doing what He does is the greatest way we could ever spend our time, energy and money. Remember that wherever you are, if you have expectation and the willingness to take risks, the kingdom will break in!

Know What You're For

I had a brief moment last week where I lost my vision. I forgot why we packed up everything we owned 8 months ago, left a great life in Kansas City and drove 2,200 miles to Halifax, Nova Scotia.

God had spoken to us time and time again about the healing ministry of Jesus breaking out in the Atlantic Coast, about our involvement in stirring up spiritual gifts, teaching and leadership. And yet, somehow, in the course of life, I lost perspective and began to wonder if I should do something else. I actually went so far as to send off a resume to a Vineyard in Ohio, and before I knew it they were wanting to talk to me about becoming their new senior pastor.

Then almost immediately, God began speaking again, reminding me of why He brought us here:
-To equip others to do the ministry of Jesus
-To stir up spiritual gifts
-To teach, heal the sick and lead people to love Jesus with everything they've got
-To welcome the Holy Spirit/the manifest presence of God and help people recognize Him when He comes.
-To plant new churches in Canada that do all these things

So I said, "thanks but no thanks" to Ohio, and my vision is clear again.
See, if you know what you're for, if you know what you're supposed to do, then what you're not supposed to do will become really clear.
I've accepted again the mission we've been given, and I'm so energized to keep moving forward.

On another note, I know from conversations I've had that quite a few of you are reading this stuff. Message me or leave a comment sometime to let me know what's going on in you.

Organic Kingdom Ministry

When we read the New Testament, particularly the Gospels and Acts, we discover a remarkable thing: The Spirit of God is always at work, all around us.

It doesn't matter if we're in a worship service or a grocery store; at any moment God can break in and give us spiritual gifts to touch somebody's life with His power and love. The key to experiencing this is to simply open our eyes and try to see what God might be doing in the people around us.

This past week, it happened in our Sunday morning gathering:

I wasn't speaking or leading the meeting in anyway, but as I sat there with my family, the Holy Spirit just began highlighting people. It was like He was saying, "I'm doing this thing in that person..."

At that point, our responsibility is just to step out and take the risk to join God in what we sense Him doing. So that's what I did:

In a very natural way, I went up and gave prophetic words to the three people God showed me. All were profoundly affected. The power of God came on them, tears flowed, they were filled with encouragement and strengthened in their journeys.

What if we just did this everywhere we went? What if we looked around in our churches, in the Wal-Mart, at the gas stations, and simply said, "God, what are you doing here and can I help?" I suspect at the end of our lives we'd have impacted a lot of people. The Kingdom of God has come close to us- where can we give it away today?

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!