The Importance of the Prophetic

Throughout this lifelong journey of being connected to Jesus and His Kingdom, I've discovered that God absolutely loves to speak to people. One of the ways we get to partner with Him in this is through the gift of prophecy. To simplify things, prophecy is the act of hearing what God is saying specifically in the moment for a person or a group, and speaking it out. Often, the presence of the Holy Spirit accompanies the message in a powerful way, and people's lives are dramatically touched.

In the New Testament, Acts chapter 21 gives us an example of the prominence of prophetic activity among early followers of Jesus:

In this one chapter, we see Spirit-inspired prophecies from the local believers in Tyre (verse 4), Philip's teenage daughters in Caesarea (verse 9), and a recognized prophetic person named Agabus (verses 10-11).

It seems everywhere Paul went on this leg of his trip, the Spirit of God was speaking to him through prophetic messages.

In 1 Corinthians 14: 24-25, we see how important prophetic gifts are to the community of believers. Paul writes that we must "eagerly desire" the gift of prophecy, and goes on to talk about the impact that hearing God's voice can make on people who haven't encountered Him yet:

"But if all of you are prophesying, and unbelievers or people who don’t understand these things come into your meeting, they will be convicted of sin and judged by what you say. As they listen, their secret thoughts will be exposed, and they will fall to their knees and worship God, declaring, “God is truly here among you.”

Last night as I was sitting with a group of distracted teenagers, the Spirit of God began speaking. I looked at one young man I had never met before, and sensed that God had called him to lead worship. Not knowing whether or not he had any sort of talent for this or not, I took a risk. It turns out he's just begun to play guitar and the "in the moment" prophetic word stirred spoke powerfully to him that God knows him and has huge plans for his life.

Looking at another student I saw a picture of him in front of groups of people announcing that Jesus is present to heal sicknesses. As I shared it with him, the Holy Spirit confirmed the message with a strong sense of His presence.

Prophecy brings the reality of God down to an experiential life level. So many times I have found that when we listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit, and speak out in confidence the things we sense Him saying, the whole atmosphere of a room is transformed. All it requires is the confident expectation that God will speak to us, and the ability to setp out and take risks.

Breaking the Power of Fear

Even the most basic reading of the New Testament illustrates that when the Kingdom of God breaks into this present evil age, power encounters occur. The rule of God overthrows the rule of darkness, oppression falls off people, and they come into the mercy of the Father.

This happens everywhere Jesus goes in the New Testament: whether it's a vacation at a lakeside retreat (Mark 4 & 5), a local church gathering or after a dinner at a friend's house (Luke 4). Jesus loves undoing the power of the enemy! As He announces the Kingdom's presence, the pseudo kingdom of the devil is pushed back and evil spirits run for cover.

Two weeks ago during a ministry time after worship, the Holy Spirit gave a word of knowledge about freeing people from nightmares and intense fear during the night hours. One of the people who responded was a girl who had been plagued with fearful dreams and night terrors constantly. We prayed a very simple prayer for her, commanding nightmares to stop by Jesus' authority and inviting the presence of the Spirit of God around her. This girl told me a few nights ago that she hasn't had a nightmare since!

This is the in-breaking of God's kingdom, pushing back darkness and bringing His presence to the people He loves. I'm so glad we get to participate in His work...

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!