FROM THE TRENCH
Dear Friends,
As summer has begun, God has been stirring in me an urgency and sobriety that “It’s time”. It’s time for us to seek Him with all of our hearts, and to desire righteousness in our lives. I believe this is a season of purification as He takes us to the next level. The scripture that He is impressing strongly upon my heart is Hosea 10:12:
“Sow for yourselves righteousness; Reap in mercy; Break up your fallow ground, For it is time to seek the LORD, Till He comes and rains righteousness on you.”
In obedience I have been fasting and crying out to Almighty God to help me, and His entire Church in Canada, to seek Him fervently until He brings us to a greater place of righteousness. I am realizing the grave importance of being a righteous woman of God, but also the truth that I cannot do it on my own. I cannot make myself righteous, no matter how hard I work or how much I “do”. I am hopelessly lost if God does not, by the power of His Holy Spirit, come in and transform me. I want to be pure and walk uprightly, but I have to agree with Paul when he so profoundly said, “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do – this I keep on doing…….What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God – through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Rom. 7:15-19, 24)
In order for us to be righteous, we MUST seek the Lord. Otherwise we will never attain it. In the previous chapter of Romans, Paul encouraged the Church that we as believers have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness (6:18), and that obedience is what leads to righteousness (6:16). As God has shown us over and over throughout the past year, everything is founded on that one thing – obedience to Christ.
This process has been very sobering as God is taking me into a greater place of responsibility for my decisions and actions, and death to my flesh and my own will, desires and expectations. God has been speaking to me more strongly and firmly during this time, that ”It’s not a game.” It’s not about my own pleasure or personal gain. He is not saying this in condemnation (Rom. 8:1), but rather because He is fiercely jealous for my heart and for His glory. There is a higher calling for each one of us as men and women of God, leaders in the kingdom, and those that represent Christ to the nation and the world. We are in a time NOW when God is beginning to hold us to greater accountability. I have been struck and humbled by the realization that the decisions I am tempted to make in my flesh and “in the moment”, or in my own understanding, can have very grave consequences that will cause pain and destruction not only in my life, but in the lives of others, and will tarnish God’s reputation in the eyes of those watching me. We cannot and must not compromise our integrity by forgetting the big picture and the fact that our lives are not our own.
This is why righteousness is so vital for us to pursue as followers of Christ. We must “break up the fallow ground” in our lives (Hosea 10:12), allowing God to deal with the hardness that keeps us from walking in obedience to Him, and prepare us for the abundance of fruit that He desires and has destined to produce in and through our lives.
Now, my fellow soldiers in the trench, I don’t know about you, but obedience does not always come easily for me. I can understand why Paul said, “I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves.” (6:19) Sometimes our flesh just will not submit. We are stuck in the patterns that we have operated in for so long. So what do we do when we can’t seem to make ourselves do or say or think what we know we should, or stop ourselves from doing or saying or thinking what we know we shouldn’t’? We seek God. We cry out to Him with humility and sincerity of heart and ask Him to make us righteous. And we keep seeking until He comes and rains righteousness on us.
Friends, that is our goal for this month. Let’s seek God earnestly, confessing our unwillingness to walk in obedience and be made righteous, but declaring that we really desire to become willing. Let’s cry out to Him to give us that willingness, and the grace, to obey Him and to wait for and receive His righteousness. And let’s agree together that He will come and rain righteousness upon us!
Seeking Him,
Karen Schmidsrauter
News Director, CIP
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Thy Kingdom Come: A National Call to Consecration
by David Damien: July 23 to September 13, 2007
In June I had the privilege of worshiping and waiting on the Lord with hundreds of leaders from Vancouver to Halifax in a series of regional gatherings. As we shared together, it was clear that this last year (specifically the Jewish year that began in September 2006) has been a hard one for many in the body of Christ. There has been a variety of attacks by the enemy: spiritual dullness, discouragement, hope deferred, physical sickness as well as confusion, offense and accusation to destroy relationships (the unity of the body). Yet through it all God has given an assurance that He has allowed these things to happen to test and purify our hearts as a preparation for a major shift that is coming. While we don’t know fully what the shift will look like, the heart of it is that the church we know today is about to be transformed into a church that manifests the kingdom of heaven, the way Jesus spoke about. This is what many of us have been longing and praying and fighting to see. And we all agreed that the time has come for to hope and to dream again.
Throughout this year the Lord has been using the story of Joshua and children of Israel crossing the river Jordan as a picture of where we are in the church of Canada right now. The tests we have been facing are like the circumcision at Gilgal (Joshua 5) only instead of a physical circumcision, God is circumcising our hearts (Romans 2:29). He is removing old patterns of religious thinking and systems of beliefs that aren’t founded on His word so that we can be prepared to receive new revelations about the Kingdom. And He is “rolling away the reproach of Egypt”, the shame that has come with the failures, hurts, wounds and disappointments of living in a church without the full manifestation of the true power of the Kingdom. God’s heart in this is to renew in us faith, a faith that will allow us to rise up to enter into the Promised Land and possess all of our inheritance.
I know for myself that after the intensity of this year, there is a great temptation to go into 'holiday mode' with my family, especially over the summer months. But since returning from the gatherings at the end of June, the Lord has been really impressing on me that the remaining months of the Jewish year are very significant (Rosh Hashanah is September 13). I got in contact with other leaders across the nation, and as we counseled together we came to an agreement that the Lord is calling the church of Canada to a special kind of consecration over these next months.
A Season of Alignment
This year has been a year of alignment. We feel the call to consecrate ourselves at this time is a simple one. We choose to position ourselves wholeheartedly before the Lord and ask Him to do whatever it takes to bring everything in our lives as individuals, families, churches, cities, provinces and as a nation – into alignment with the principles of the Kingdom He is seeking to establish on earth. We believe that our obedience to this call will open a window of grace over our lives for divine encounters with the Lord through which He will:
1) complete the process of the circumcision of our hearts by cutting away old structures and mindsets of the past season/wineskin so that we would be prepared to receive the new things the Lord has in store for the coming season.
2) roll away the reproach/shame of Egypt and heal us. After the circumcision, the Israelites had a period of healing before they were ready to take the Promised Land. This is a window of grace for healing and freedom from the wounds, hurts and disappointments of the past. God wants to quiet us with His love by revealing more of Himself to us, the Truth breaking the lies of the enemy that are keeping us trapped in persistent cycles of bondage/death in our lives.
3) give us a new impartation of faith and revelation of His strategy/blueprint for the coming shift. God wants to release fresh revelation (for e.g. through dreams and visions and supernatural encounters) of His counsels and purposes for this nation in the coming season and how He intends to establish His kingdom in the church of Canada in the pattern of the kingdom in heaven. We believe God wants to give us the full assurance of faith that the strongholds in our lives, churches, cities and nation are falling down and we are about to see a manifestation of God’s hand in our nation in a way we have never seen before.
The 9th of Av – A New Decree
For the last few weeks the Lord has been speaking to me that the 9th of Av (which occurs this year on July 23) is a significant date in this season. While I knew the 9th of Av was the day the temple was destroyed both times in Jewish history, I was amazed to find out that according to the Jewish tradition "On the ninth of Av it was decreed that our fathers should not enter the [Promised] Land (Mishnah Ta'anit 4:6).
With all the Lord is saying to us now about this being the time to enter the Promised Land we felt to begin the consecration on the 9th of Av (beginning at sunset July 23) and continue until Rosh Hashanah (ending at sunset September 13). We sense that the Lord is giving us (as a representation of the church of Canada) an opportunity through our choice to answer the call to consecration to make a corporate prophetic decree that the season of not entering is over and now is the time for us, by faith, to possess all the inheritance the Lord has for our lives and nation.
A Kingdom Pattern
We feel that even the way we approach this consecration is to be different as God seeks to teach us about the kingdom. For example, as we prayed about whether there was to be a fast called during this time, the Lord directed our attention to Matthew 15:10-11:
Jesus called the crowd to him and said, "Listen and understand. What goes into a man's mouth does not make him 'unclean,' but what comes out of his mouth, that is what makes him 'unclean’.”
From this we felt the Lord was encouraging us that instead of focusing on just fasting food, He wants us to focus on fasting every thought, word, action or attitude that is not in alignment with the Kingdom. That doesn’t mean that He might not call us individually or as groups to times of fasting during this call. The most important thing is that each of us remains sensitive to hear the Lord and obey Him in each step He leads us to follow during this time.
Let us remember that the Kingdom is not about something we do, it’s about who we are. It’s about blurring the lines between the sacred and the secular - not separating who we are at church or in prayer times from who we are at home or in our office or when we’re out with our friends. The Kingdom is about living in a constant communion with the Lord throughout our daily lives and in fellowship with one another as much as possible.
For example when we think of gathering to seek the Lord most of us think of attending a prayer meeting. But wouldn’t it be amazing if we saw every opportunity when we gather with our friends as a chance to share our hearts about what the Lord is saying or doing in our lives? And then as the Lord leads us, maybe we would pray or worship or just speak words of God’s heart and love to one another. Jesus said where two or three of us gather in His name, there He is with us. As we allow the Lord to invade the ordinary moments of our lives with His presence, I believe we will begin to experience the Kingdom in a whole new dimension.
Staying ConnectedDuring the consecration call we will send out daily emails for all those who would like to receive them (they will also be posted on our website) so we can walk together in what the Lord is speaking to us. If you would like to receive these emails, click here to be taken there now. We also would love to hear from you what the Lord is showing you – visions, dreams, revelations, scriptures – so that together we can see the picture emerge of what God is speaking to the church of Canada for the next season. You can send an email with any of these to kingdom@watchmen.org or fill out the ‘sharing what you hear’ form on our website.
Singleness of Heart
Thank you for your heart to sacrificially walk in obedience to the Lord in this consecration season. May the Lord use this time to supernaturally knit our hearts together as one body as we position ourselves together before Him. And may the promise of Jeremiah be ours for the church of Canada:
They will be my people, and I will be their God. I will give them singleness of heart and action, so that they will always fear me for their own good and the good of their children after them. I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good to them, and I will inspire them to fear me, so that they will never turn away from me. I will rejoice in doing them good and will assuredly plant them in this land with all my heart and soul. Jeremiah 32:38-41
In June I had the privilege of worshiping and waiting on the Lord with hundreds of leaders from Vancouver to Halifax in a series of regional gatherings. As we shared together, it was clear that this last year (specifically the Jewish year that began in September 2006) has been a hard one for many in the body of Christ. There has been a variety of attacks by the enemy: spiritual dullness, discouragement, hope deferred, physical sickness as well as confusion, offense and accusation to destroy relationships (the unity of the body). Yet through it all God has given an assurance that He has allowed these things to happen to test and purify our hearts as a preparation for a major shift that is coming. While we don’t know fully what the shift will look like, the heart of it is that the church we know today is about to be transformed into a church that manifests the kingdom of heaven, the way Jesus spoke about. This is what many of us have been longing and praying and fighting to see. And we all agreed that the time has come for to hope and to dream again.
Throughout this year the Lord has been using the story of Joshua and children of Israel crossing the river Jordan as a picture of where we are in the church of Canada right now. The tests we have been facing are like the circumcision at Gilgal (Joshua 5) only instead of a physical circumcision, God is circumcising our hearts (Romans 2:29). He is removing old patterns of religious thinking and systems of beliefs that aren’t founded on His word so that we can be prepared to receive new revelations about the Kingdom. And He is “rolling away the reproach of Egypt”, the shame that has come with the failures, hurts, wounds and disappointments of living in a church without the full manifestation of the true power of the Kingdom. God’s heart in this is to renew in us faith, a faith that will allow us to rise up to enter into the Promised Land and possess all of our inheritance.
I know for myself that after the intensity of this year, there is a great temptation to go into 'holiday mode' with my family, especially over the summer months. But since returning from the gatherings at the end of June, the Lord has been really impressing on me that the remaining months of the Jewish year are very significant (Rosh Hashanah is September 13). I got in contact with other leaders across the nation, and as we counseled together we came to an agreement that the Lord is calling the church of Canada to a special kind of consecration over these next months.
A Season of Alignment
This year has been a year of alignment. We feel the call to consecrate ourselves at this time is a simple one. We choose to position ourselves wholeheartedly before the Lord and ask Him to do whatever it takes to bring everything in our lives as individuals, families, churches, cities, provinces and as a nation – into alignment with the principles of the Kingdom He is seeking to establish on earth. We believe that our obedience to this call will open a window of grace over our lives for divine encounters with the Lord through which He will:
1) complete the process of the circumcision of our hearts by cutting away old structures and mindsets of the past season/wineskin so that we would be prepared to receive the new things the Lord has in store for the coming season.
2) roll away the reproach/shame of Egypt and heal us. After the circumcision, the Israelites had a period of healing before they were ready to take the Promised Land. This is a window of grace for healing and freedom from the wounds, hurts and disappointments of the past. God wants to quiet us with His love by revealing more of Himself to us, the Truth breaking the lies of the enemy that are keeping us trapped in persistent cycles of bondage/death in our lives.
3) give us a new impartation of faith and revelation of His strategy/blueprint for the coming shift. God wants to release fresh revelation (for e.g. through dreams and visions and supernatural encounters) of His counsels and purposes for this nation in the coming season and how He intends to establish His kingdom in the church of Canada in the pattern of the kingdom in heaven. We believe God wants to give us the full assurance of faith that the strongholds in our lives, churches, cities and nation are falling down and we are about to see a manifestation of God’s hand in our nation in a way we have never seen before.
The 9th of Av – A New Decree
For the last few weeks the Lord has been speaking to me that the 9th of Av (which occurs this year on July 23) is a significant date in this season. While I knew the 9th of Av was the day the temple was destroyed both times in Jewish history, I was amazed to find out that according to the Jewish tradition "On the ninth of Av it was decreed that our fathers should not enter the [Promised] Land (Mishnah Ta'anit 4:6).
With all the Lord is saying to us now about this being the time to enter the Promised Land we felt to begin the consecration on the 9th of Av (beginning at sunset July 23) and continue until Rosh Hashanah (ending at sunset September 13). We sense that the Lord is giving us (as a representation of the church of Canada) an opportunity through our choice to answer the call to consecration to make a corporate prophetic decree that the season of not entering is over and now is the time for us, by faith, to possess all the inheritance the Lord has for our lives and nation.
A Kingdom Pattern
We feel that even the way we approach this consecration is to be different as God seeks to teach us about the kingdom. For example, as we prayed about whether there was to be a fast called during this time, the Lord directed our attention to Matthew 15:10-11:
Jesus called the crowd to him and said, "Listen and understand. What goes into a man's mouth does not make him 'unclean,' but what comes out of his mouth, that is what makes him 'unclean’.”
From this we felt the Lord was encouraging us that instead of focusing on just fasting food, He wants us to focus on fasting every thought, word, action or attitude that is not in alignment with the Kingdom. That doesn’t mean that He might not call us individually or as groups to times of fasting during this call. The most important thing is that each of us remains sensitive to hear the Lord and obey Him in each step He leads us to follow during this time.
Let us remember that the Kingdom is not about something we do, it’s about who we are. It’s about blurring the lines between the sacred and the secular - not separating who we are at church or in prayer times from who we are at home or in our office or when we’re out with our friends. The Kingdom is about living in a constant communion with the Lord throughout our daily lives and in fellowship with one another as much as possible.
For example when we think of gathering to seek the Lord most of us think of attending a prayer meeting. But wouldn’t it be amazing if we saw every opportunity when we gather with our friends as a chance to share our hearts about what the Lord is saying or doing in our lives? And then as the Lord leads us, maybe we would pray or worship or just speak words of God’s heart and love to one another. Jesus said where two or three of us gather in His name, there He is with us. As we allow the Lord to invade the ordinary moments of our lives with His presence, I believe we will begin to experience the Kingdom in a whole new dimension.
Staying ConnectedDuring the consecration call we will send out daily emails for all those who would like to receive them (they will also be posted on our website) so we can walk together in what the Lord is speaking to us. If you would like to receive these emails, click here to be taken there now. We also would love to hear from you what the Lord is showing you – visions, dreams, revelations, scriptures – so that together we can see the picture emerge of what God is speaking to the church of Canada for the next season. You can send an email with any of these to kingdom@watchmen.org or fill out the ‘sharing what you hear’ form on our website.
Singleness of Heart
Thank you for your heart to sacrificially walk in obedience to the Lord in this consecration season. May the Lord use this time to supernaturally knit our hearts together as one body as we position ourselves together before Him. And may the promise of Jeremiah be ours for the church of Canada:
They will be my people, and I will be their God. I will give them singleness of heart and action, so that they will always fear me for their own good and the good of their children after them. I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good to them, and I will inspire them to fear me, so that they will never turn away from me. I will rejoice in doing them good and will assuredly plant them in this land with all my heart and soul. Jeremiah 32:38-41
Two Recent Prophetic Words for Canada
Here they are:
by: Timothy Pond
June 16, 2007
While I was in worship on Saturday June 16, 2007, in a small group meeting the Lord gave me a closed vision. I could see large tectonic plates in the ground moving in a faster rate them normal. (These plates spoke to me about the issues in the foundations of the Church). I cannot say that I have seen these type of plates before, or how fast they normally move, but I just knew within my spirit that these plates where moving three or four times faster then normal. (Tectonic plates move very slowly but are consistent). I could see these tectonic plates in the ground were pushing up against each other creating lots of tension. In the vision as I watch these plates moving many of these plates hit head on, which then caused major earthquakes all across the nation of Canada.
Then the Lord gave me the interpretation of this vision. He said that this is what He is doing in the Church of Canada at this time. He said that the plates represent many of the issues in the foundations of the Church right now. Some of the issues that He spoke to me about are the major sins in the church, issues of righteousness and justice, taking sides, having to be right or wrong, and how many Churches are moving to one side over another.
I heard the Lord say to me that the greatest issues right now is the change of the guard. This may mean a lot of things to a lot of people, but to me it meant the changing of times and seasons. The Lord is trying to do a new thing within Canada and many of the older structures are coming against the new ones. These issues are rubbing with each other creating problems, and there is going to be a major collision. The Lord spoke to be about the past and that every time He did something new that was very different then what the church was used to, the tensions would arise and there would be a major split in the Body of the Church. The result is that there will be break up in many areas in the Church that need to break up, and that there is going to be major splits in both churches and movements, because of these tensions in the Body.
An earthquake is the result from the sudden release of energy in the earth created by the moving tectonic plates. The Lord said to me that after this split where the earth was once divided there would rise up a new and fresh wave of the Spirit that would spill out on the ground, and bring many people closer to the Lord in new ways. This energy being released in the earthquakes is the new power that many Christians are going to start to walk in, which is being released in a manifest shaking or displacement of the ground.
We need to mobilize for prayer so that division is minimized, and so the new expressions of the Church in Canada are established with the fruits of the Spirit intact. I do feel from the Lord that this division is both from man and God. During times of upheaval, the potential for the “deeds of the flesh” are much higher. Please cover this season, which I believe is the next two years in prayer and co-labour with Jesus in intercession for the fresh wave of the Spirit to be accepted and established.
By Faytene Kryskow
July 14, 07
In 2005 when we first began to travel the nation releasing the call for a generation to emerge that would reclaim God’s original intent for Canada (i.e. the righteous foundations) I had no idea that we were on the eve of, what I believe now, is a seasonal shift of end time proportion. As I have sought the heart of God in prayer in these last months, it is my personal sense that, globally, we have indeed crossed a threshold of time. I believe we may very well have entered into the end time season that Jesus spoke of in Mathew 24. I also believe the prophetic words that have been spoken, time and time again, that Canada has a key role to play in this end time scenario. It is for this, and other reasons that I am about to expound upon, that I believe it is crucial that we be alert in the spirit, discerning the times and posturing ourselves in prayer and action to usher in the Lord’s purposes for our nation.
DISCERNING THE TIMES: WHEN THE CEDARS SNAPPED LIKE TWIGS
I am sure I am not the only one who raised an eyebrow saying, “There is something TO this,” when record breaking winds ripped through Stanley Park (Vancouver, BC) in January ’07. The winds snapped 100-200 yr old trees like toothpicks. The entire nation was stunned as we stood back, helpless, watching this national land mark be ripped to shreds.
During my years of serving at the Vancouver House of Prayer I wrote a manual that detailed the spiritual history of Vancouver. While researching I learned a few things about the park and city that are worth noting here. Firstly I learned that Stanley Park is NOT technically a park, it land that has been designated for the national army. The land known as Stanley Park has been leased, for 99 yrs, to the City of Vancouver by the Federal government. Hold that thought. Secondly, I learned that Vancouver is considered a ‘sister city’ on the west coast to San Francisco. At the foundation of the city the mayor even directly referenced Vancouver’s relational DNA connect to San Francisco. The ‘sister’ park in San Francisco to Stanley Park is a park is called Golden Gate Park. In the natural there are many similarities, in the spiritual – even more.
THE EPICENTRE OF THE SUMMER OF LOVE: 1967
In 1967 an estimated 100,000 gathered in San Francisco, often at Golden Gate Park, for what came to be known as the Summer of Love. This gathering of young people launched the sexual revolution (immorality movement), the new age movement (overt rejecting of Judeo-Christian values), the women’s movement (whose main ‘cause’ became abortion), a movement of rebellion to authority and a mass movement of drug abuse under the banner of ‘spiritual enlightenment.’ The epi-centre of the summer of Love in the USA was San Francisco. The epi-centre of the summer of Love in Canada (as we too openly received these moments) was Stanley Park. 40 yrs later if you were to take a walk in Stanley Park you would, in my assessment, be able to divide the park up into 3 main regional categories. Firstly, there is a whole section of the park that has been given over to sexual immorality. If you are a man seeking sex with another man you simply go park your car in that section and ‘action’ will find you. Secondly, it is commonly known that there are segments of the deep woods of the park that are used by those who practice high level witchcraft. Thirdly, there is the rest of the park that, by and large, is given over to worshipping the creation rather than the creator. As a city, in many ways, we idolized this park.
Let me unpack what I believe the spirit is saying. The land that has been set aside for the ‘army’ in Canada has been surrendered to a prevailing spirit of leisure. During this season of leisure all manner of perversion, witchcraft and idolatry has set up shop in the land. The result: the destruction of a generation. Let me give you a few stats to illustrate.
STATE OF THE UNION: CURRENTLY IN CANADA
*note, these are some quick stats we pulled off of Stats Canada and other on-line studies, you can find the same (or similar) stats by doing a simple GOOGLE search
LIFE:
>3-4 million of my generation never made it past the womb (these numbers are conservative as they only include reported abortions and do not include the morning after pill) ; this works out to 20-40% of the generation depending on whether or not you include the pill
>currently, according to reported stats 2,000 Canadians are aborted a week (this is a small town, or a city elementary school, a week)
MARITAL BREAK DOWN/IMMORALITY & LINK TO YOUTH SUICIDE:
>when I was 14 (18yrs ago) it was uncommon for people to live together before marriage, now it is uncommon for people to get married, most stay common-law ; more than 30% of families in Quebec are common law
>since the introduction of no-fault divorce in Canada 30 years ago, the rate of marital break-up has soared 600%
>1/3 of children under the age of 12 have experienced what they call great unhappiness, the chief cause being parental divorce or separation and death in the family
>2003 study had direct link between divorce/separation and suicidal tendencies in youth
>a number of studies demonstrated that suicide is higher among youth who are not living with 2 biological parents (this means, as marital break down has increased we can assume suicidal tendencies among our children have as well)
>the suicide rate has doubled among children age 10-14yrs over the last 20 yrs
>a recent BC study said 20% of girls under the age of 12 had considered suicide and 13% of boys in this age range.
>the highest suicide rate on the planet is among CANADIAN first nations male youth
SEXUAL EXPLOITATION OF OUR CHILDREN
>in Canada, though we agreed with the UN definition of a child as anyone ‘under the age of 18yrs’ we allow 14yr olds to consent to sex with adults – this means we say it is ‘ok’ for adults to have sex with children ; if that same adult takes pictures of the act it is consider creation of child porn ( a clear double standard)
>most children admit to being exposed (and some addicted) to hard core pornography by the age of 12yrs
>in the name of ‘creative’ expression it is legal for an adult to possess child pornography in Canada
DRUG AND ALCOHOL ABUSE:
>by the age 11yrs 62.9% of Canadian youth had consumed alcohol (2004/2005 survey)
>by the age 13yr 36.6% admitted to binge drinking, being 5 or more drinks
>50.3% of youth grades 7-9 yrs old admitted smoking marijuana
Though these stats are revealing fruit, stats alone are not how we read the signs of the time. These stats only bare confirmation to what, I believe, the Spirit was already highlighting. Before I articulate the summary of what I believe the Spirit is saying about all this, there are a few other pertinent details that you need to be made aware of.
1967 IN CANADA:
1967 was our 100th yr birthday as a nation. In Montreal in the summer of 67 over 50,000 million people from the nations of the world traveled to Canada for this fair. The motto of Expo 67 was actually a national decree of secular humanism: “Man and His World.” As a nation we effectively entered into a national spirit of rebellion declaring there is no God and, instead of “He will have Dominion” (Ps 72:8) that we will have dominion because this is our world. It was only a few months after the close of Expo 67, in November of the same year, that the separatist movement exploded in Quebec. At our foundation Canada was a UNION of provinces. A nation birthed in unity, not war. Through the separatist movement so much of what we are as a nation came under direct threat as Quebec sought to ‘file for divorce’ so to speak.
This same fall Dr. Henry Mortgentaler (a Holocaust survivor) came on the national scene declaring for the first time that every woman should have the ‘right to choose.’ The year closed off with the then Justice Minister, Pierre Elliot Trudeau, uttering his famous phrase while working for the legalization of homosexuality, “I think the view we take here is that there's no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation.” It was under the banner of this ideology that we, as Canadians, elected him our next Prime Minister.
SIGNIFICANCE OF 40:
As I pondered all this in prayer, I also set my face like flint to study this out in the Word. I found that 40 is a biblical season. It is a season of judgment (see Judges and the dessert wandering), a season of blessing (see judges), a season of breakthrough (Jesus’ fast), a season of rule (David, Solomon etc.). 40 yrs is a season. This is one of the biblically revealed ways of God. I want to say, “A western world season is OVER.” The question is, will we as a nation enter into another cycle of perversion, rebellion and death which will all lead to judgment or will we enter into a season of blessing? Will we reclaim God’s original intent for Canada? Will we take our place among the nations of the earth, enter into our end time place in the spirit, and be a part of ushering in the greatest harvest of souls and righteousness the earth has ever seen? Though much ground has been taken by the prayer, reconciliation and reformation movements in Canada these past 10-15 yrs (the fact that we have the highest number of self-professing born-again Christians as Members of Parliament in memorable history is a major indicator of this). I do not believe we are there yet. IF the glass is half full we have to ask, “Are we ok with half full - are we going to submit to a spirit of leisure and compromise and lose another generation - or are we going for fullness?” As a young(er) person I want to appeal to the mothers and fathers in the spirit in this nation to push with us as a younger generation to see the shift.
I believe the Stanley park winds of Jan. 07 were a sign (there have been other signs as well but for the sake of time and space I will not unpack them in this article). I believe the winds were a sign that the Lord Himself is drawing a line in the sand and declaring, “Thus far and no more. I am seeking to dismantle the backbones of these movements of perversion, rebellion and death. The 40 yrs of wandering is coming to a close.” Again, though the stats seem daunting and confirm the need for a shift, we look with the eyes of faith pressing our ear to His chest saying, “Father speak…if this is true and we are in a crucial moment, how then do we posture?”
I believe God is calling us in this ‘hinge’ moment to massive, fervent prayer and fasting to see the shift happen. I believe God is calling us believe Him for a generation, that has been devastated and lying the valley of perversion, abortion, suicide, addiction and rebellion like a heap of dry bones, to come forth as a mighty army. Jesus said to his disciples, “Some of these [demons] only lose their power through prayer and fasting…”
I believe God wants to give us the shift – but some of these only come through prayer and fasting.
(FYI: You can imagine our amazement when we realized that Lou Engle and his leadership team in the USA was carrying a similar burden for this summer. It is because of this that, instead of gathering again on Parliament for another CRY event this summer, that we decided to combine efforts with the CALL 07.07.07 and take as many Canadians as we could to Nashville for a day of massive prayer and fasting to contend for this shift to happen. The contending is not over. Visit www.4mycanada.ca for a report.)
HOW THEN DO WE POSTURE (RIGHT ‘NOW’)
In Daniel chapter 9 we see a young man (part of a righteous remnant in Babylon) who has ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to His people. He, through the prophecies of Jeremiah, comes to understand that it is time for His people to possess their promised land. He discerns the time. Though they have been in captivity in an immoral, paganistic and idolatrous land it is time for them to come out of her. So how does Daniel posture? Does he have a rally? Perhaps a parade or a celebration to declare that they are about to ‘take the land’? Um. No. He enters into a time of solemn repentance before the Lord declaring, “Lord we have sinned!” Daniel is hard core. In my ‘camp’ we would call him a NAZERITE. A total God seeker, consecrated and willing to do whatever it takes to see the Lord glorified in His generation. Out of that spirit, instead of getting bitter and saying, “Because of all you rebellious and stubborn Israelities I have had to sit here and eat the fruit of Babylon!” Um. No, again. He gets on His face in consecrated repentance and begins to usher in the shift through His prayers and fasting.
Let’s face it, at the beginning a time called ‘summer holidays’ this might be the last word any of us would want to hear. If you wrestle with the ‘heaviness’ of this call and whether or not you will chose to posture yourself to respond in prayer for the shift, I want to say to you: Too much is at stake. Now is not a time to sleep or slumber.
HOW THEN DO WE POSTURE FOR THIS END TIME SEASON
I would like to wrap this article up by ending where I began, with the end time seasonal shift that I believe we have entered into. As I prayed in preparation for, and then joined in with thousands of others in my generation for the CALL in Nashville just a few days ago, I have been hit continually with one booming thought: He is coming again. I believe, now perhaps more then ever I discern a seriousness in the air that we each need to get right with the Lord – it is a call to total, not partial, consecration. Love the Lord your God with all of yourself. All means all. It is a time to renew our covenant with Him as our lover God, King – our husband.
In order to usher in the next 40 yrs this is what it is going to take: a generation given over to Holy Love. Movements were ushered in on the backs of the lives and choices of people in the late 60’s. A counter movement will be ushered in the same way, through the lives of people (us). I believe wholeheartedly the ‘now’ call to reverse the curse of 1967 through massive prayer and fasting. I also believe this ‘now’ call is landing in the midst of a larger end-time landscape that is developing. I believe the generation that is rising, and being brought to spiritual birth right now, is full of end-time evangelists, end-time prophets, end-time Nazarites – they are the end-time warriors of the God. They will reap the end time harvest and usher in the coming of the King of Glory. What I am saying is this: I actually believe there is something even bigger than reversing the summer of 67 that is coming down the pike. As my friend Rob Parker often says, “Eternity is about to swallow up time.” It is time to get right with God and seek him in radical devotion like we have never done before. It is time to posture ourselves in massive prayer and fasting to see the tide shift in our nation(s). It is time to step into our end time purpose to bring healing to the nations and usher in the coming of our King. It is time.
He is coming again, people get ready.
by: Timothy Pond
June 16, 2007
While I was in worship on Saturday June 16, 2007, in a small group meeting the Lord gave me a closed vision. I could see large tectonic plates in the ground moving in a faster rate them normal. (These plates spoke to me about the issues in the foundations of the Church). I cannot say that I have seen these type of plates before, or how fast they normally move, but I just knew within my spirit that these plates where moving three or four times faster then normal. (Tectonic plates move very slowly but are consistent). I could see these tectonic plates in the ground were pushing up against each other creating lots of tension. In the vision as I watch these plates moving many of these plates hit head on, which then caused major earthquakes all across the nation of Canada.
Then the Lord gave me the interpretation of this vision. He said that this is what He is doing in the Church of Canada at this time. He said that the plates represent many of the issues in the foundations of the Church right now. Some of the issues that He spoke to me about are the major sins in the church, issues of righteousness and justice, taking sides, having to be right or wrong, and how many Churches are moving to one side over another.
I heard the Lord say to me that the greatest issues right now is the change of the guard. This may mean a lot of things to a lot of people, but to me it meant the changing of times and seasons. The Lord is trying to do a new thing within Canada and many of the older structures are coming against the new ones. These issues are rubbing with each other creating problems, and there is going to be a major collision. The Lord spoke to be about the past and that every time He did something new that was very different then what the church was used to, the tensions would arise and there would be a major split in the Body of the Church. The result is that there will be break up in many areas in the Church that need to break up, and that there is going to be major splits in both churches and movements, because of these tensions in the Body.
An earthquake is the result from the sudden release of energy in the earth created by the moving tectonic plates. The Lord said to me that after this split where the earth was once divided there would rise up a new and fresh wave of the Spirit that would spill out on the ground, and bring many people closer to the Lord in new ways. This energy being released in the earthquakes is the new power that many Christians are going to start to walk in, which is being released in a manifest shaking or displacement of the ground.
We need to mobilize for prayer so that division is minimized, and so the new expressions of the Church in Canada are established with the fruits of the Spirit intact. I do feel from the Lord that this division is both from man and God. During times of upheaval, the potential for the “deeds of the flesh” are much higher. Please cover this season, which I believe is the next two years in prayer and co-labour with Jesus in intercession for the fresh wave of the Spirit to be accepted and established.
By Faytene Kryskow
July 14, 07
In 2005 when we first began to travel the nation releasing the call for a generation to emerge that would reclaim God’s original intent for Canada (i.e. the righteous foundations) I had no idea that we were on the eve of, what I believe now, is a seasonal shift of end time proportion. As I have sought the heart of God in prayer in these last months, it is my personal sense that, globally, we have indeed crossed a threshold of time. I believe we may very well have entered into the end time season that Jesus spoke of in Mathew 24. I also believe the prophetic words that have been spoken, time and time again, that Canada has a key role to play in this end time scenario. It is for this, and other reasons that I am about to expound upon, that I believe it is crucial that we be alert in the spirit, discerning the times and posturing ourselves in prayer and action to usher in the Lord’s purposes for our nation.
DISCERNING THE TIMES: WHEN THE CEDARS SNAPPED LIKE TWIGS
I am sure I am not the only one who raised an eyebrow saying, “There is something TO this,” when record breaking winds ripped through Stanley Park (Vancouver, BC) in January ’07. The winds snapped 100-200 yr old trees like toothpicks. The entire nation was stunned as we stood back, helpless, watching this national land mark be ripped to shreds.
During my years of serving at the Vancouver House of Prayer I wrote a manual that detailed the spiritual history of Vancouver. While researching I learned a few things about the park and city that are worth noting here. Firstly I learned that Stanley Park is NOT technically a park, it land that has been designated for the national army. The land known as Stanley Park has been leased, for 99 yrs, to the City of Vancouver by the Federal government. Hold that thought. Secondly, I learned that Vancouver is considered a ‘sister city’ on the west coast to San Francisco. At the foundation of the city the mayor even directly referenced Vancouver’s relational DNA connect to San Francisco. The ‘sister’ park in San Francisco to Stanley Park is a park is called Golden Gate Park. In the natural there are many similarities, in the spiritual – even more.
THE EPICENTRE OF THE SUMMER OF LOVE: 1967
In 1967 an estimated 100,000 gathered in San Francisco, often at Golden Gate Park, for what came to be known as the Summer of Love. This gathering of young people launched the sexual revolution (immorality movement), the new age movement (overt rejecting of Judeo-Christian values), the women’s movement (whose main ‘cause’ became abortion), a movement of rebellion to authority and a mass movement of drug abuse under the banner of ‘spiritual enlightenment.’ The epi-centre of the summer of Love in the USA was San Francisco. The epi-centre of the summer of Love in Canada (as we too openly received these moments) was Stanley Park. 40 yrs later if you were to take a walk in Stanley Park you would, in my assessment, be able to divide the park up into 3 main regional categories. Firstly, there is a whole section of the park that has been given over to sexual immorality. If you are a man seeking sex with another man you simply go park your car in that section and ‘action’ will find you. Secondly, it is commonly known that there are segments of the deep woods of the park that are used by those who practice high level witchcraft. Thirdly, there is the rest of the park that, by and large, is given over to worshipping the creation rather than the creator. As a city, in many ways, we idolized this park.
Let me unpack what I believe the spirit is saying. The land that has been set aside for the ‘army’ in Canada has been surrendered to a prevailing spirit of leisure. During this season of leisure all manner of perversion, witchcraft and idolatry has set up shop in the land. The result: the destruction of a generation. Let me give you a few stats to illustrate.
STATE OF THE UNION: CURRENTLY IN CANADA
*note, these are some quick stats we pulled off of Stats Canada and other on-line studies, you can find the same (or similar) stats by doing a simple GOOGLE search
LIFE:
>3-4 million of my generation never made it past the womb (these numbers are conservative as they only include reported abortions and do not include the morning after pill) ; this works out to 20-40% of the generation depending on whether or not you include the pill
>currently, according to reported stats 2,000 Canadians are aborted a week (this is a small town, or a city elementary school, a week)
MARITAL BREAK DOWN/IMMORALITY & LINK TO YOUTH SUICIDE:
>when I was 14 (18yrs ago) it was uncommon for people to live together before marriage, now it is uncommon for people to get married, most stay common-law ; more than 30% of families in Quebec are common law
>since the introduction of no-fault divorce in Canada 30 years ago, the rate of marital break-up has soared 600%
>1/3 of children under the age of 12 have experienced what they call great unhappiness, the chief cause being parental divorce or separation and death in the family
>2003 study had direct link between divorce/separation and suicidal tendencies in youth
>a number of studies demonstrated that suicide is higher among youth who are not living with 2 biological parents (this means, as marital break down has increased we can assume suicidal tendencies among our children have as well)
>the suicide rate has doubled among children age 10-14yrs over the last 20 yrs
>a recent BC study said 20% of girls under the age of 12 had considered suicide and 13% of boys in this age range.
>the highest suicide rate on the planet is among CANADIAN first nations male youth
SEXUAL EXPLOITATION OF OUR CHILDREN
>in Canada, though we agreed with the UN definition of a child as anyone ‘under the age of 18yrs’ we allow 14yr olds to consent to sex with adults – this means we say it is ‘ok’ for adults to have sex with children ; if that same adult takes pictures of the act it is consider creation of child porn ( a clear double standard)
>most children admit to being exposed (and some addicted) to hard core pornography by the age of 12yrs
>in the name of ‘creative’ expression it is legal for an adult to possess child pornography in Canada
DRUG AND ALCOHOL ABUSE:
>by the age 11yrs 62.9% of Canadian youth had consumed alcohol (2004/2005 survey)
>by the age 13yr 36.6% admitted to binge drinking, being 5 or more drinks
>50.3% of youth grades 7-9 yrs old admitted smoking marijuana
Though these stats are revealing fruit, stats alone are not how we read the signs of the time. These stats only bare confirmation to what, I believe, the Spirit was already highlighting. Before I articulate the summary of what I believe the Spirit is saying about all this, there are a few other pertinent details that you need to be made aware of.
1967 IN CANADA:
1967 was our 100th yr birthday as a nation. In Montreal in the summer of 67 over 50,000 million people from the nations of the world traveled to Canada for this fair. The motto of Expo 67 was actually a national decree of secular humanism: “Man and His World.” As a nation we effectively entered into a national spirit of rebellion declaring there is no God and, instead of “He will have Dominion” (Ps 72:8) that we will have dominion because this is our world. It was only a few months after the close of Expo 67, in November of the same year, that the separatist movement exploded in Quebec. At our foundation Canada was a UNION of provinces. A nation birthed in unity, not war. Through the separatist movement so much of what we are as a nation came under direct threat as Quebec sought to ‘file for divorce’ so to speak.
This same fall Dr. Henry Mortgentaler (a Holocaust survivor) came on the national scene declaring for the first time that every woman should have the ‘right to choose.’ The year closed off with the then Justice Minister, Pierre Elliot Trudeau, uttering his famous phrase while working for the legalization of homosexuality, “I think the view we take here is that there's no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation.” It was under the banner of this ideology that we, as Canadians, elected him our next Prime Minister.
SIGNIFICANCE OF 40:
As I pondered all this in prayer, I also set my face like flint to study this out in the Word. I found that 40 is a biblical season. It is a season of judgment (see Judges and the dessert wandering), a season of blessing (see judges), a season of breakthrough (Jesus’ fast), a season of rule (David, Solomon etc.). 40 yrs is a season. This is one of the biblically revealed ways of God. I want to say, “A western world season is OVER.” The question is, will we as a nation enter into another cycle of perversion, rebellion and death which will all lead to judgment or will we enter into a season of blessing? Will we reclaim God’s original intent for Canada? Will we take our place among the nations of the earth, enter into our end time place in the spirit, and be a part of ushering in the greatest harvest of souls and righteousness the earth has ever seen? Though much ground has been taken by the prayer, reconciliation and reformation movements in Canada these past 10-15 yrs (the fact that we have the highest number of self-professing born-again Christians as Members of Parliament in memorable history is a major indicator of this). I do not believe we are there yet. IF the glass is half full we have to ask, “Are we ok with half full - are we going to submit to a spirit of leisure and compromise and lose another generation - or are we going for fullness?” As a young(er) person I want to appeal to the mothers and fathers in the spirit in this nation to push with us as a younger generation to see the shift.
I believe the Stanley park winds of Jan. 07 were a sign (there have been other signs as well but for the sake of time and space I will not unpack them in this article). I believe the winds were a sign that the Lord Himself is drawing a line in the sand and declaring, “Thus far and no more. I am seeking to dismantle the backbones of these movements of perversion, rebellion and death. The 40 yrs of wandering is coming to a close.” Again, though the stats seem daunting and confirm the need for a shift, we look with the eyes of faith pressing our ear to His chest saying, “Father speak…if this is true and we are in a crucial moment, how then do we posture?”
I believe God is calling us in this ‘hinge’ moment to massive, fervent prayer and fasting to see the shift happen. I believe God is calling us believe Him for a generation, that has been devastated and lying the valley of perversion, abortion, suicide, addiction and rebellion like a heap of dry bones, to come forth as a mighty army. Jesus said to his disciples, “Some of these [demons] only lose their power through prayer and fasting…”
I believe God wants to give us the shift – but some of these only come through prayer and fasting.
(FYI: You can imagine our amazement when we realized that Lou Engle and his leadership team in the USA was carrying a similar burden for this summer. It is because of this that, instead of gathering again on Parliament for another CRY event this summer, that we decided to combine efforts with the CALL 07.07.07 and take as many Canadians as we could to Nashville for a day of massive prayer and fasting to contend for this shift to happen. The contending is not over. Visit www.4mycanada.ca for a report.)
HOW THEN DO WE POSTURE (RIGHT ‘NOW’)
In Daniel chapter 9 we see a young man (part of a righteous remnant in Babylon) who has ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to His people. He, through the prophecies of Jeremiah, comes to understand that it is time for His people to possess their promised land. He discerns the time. Though they have been in captivity in an immoral, paganistic and idolatrous land it is time for them to come out of her. So how does Daniel posture? Does he have a rally? Perhaps a parade or a celebration to declare that they are about to ‘take the land’? Um. No. He enters into a time of solemn repentance before the Lord declaring, “Lord we have sinned!” Daniel is hard core. In my ‘camp’ we would call him a NAZERITE. A total God seeker, consecrated and willing to do whatever it takes to see the Lord glorified in His generation. Out of that spirit, instead of getting bitter and saying, “Because of all you rebellious and stubborn Israelities I have had to sit here and eat the fruit of Babylon!” Um. No, again. He gets on His face in consecrated repentance and begins to usher in the shift through His prayers and fasting.
Let’s face it, at the beginning a time called ‘summer holidays’ this might be the last word any of us would want to hear. If you wrestle with the ‘heaviness’ of this call and whether or not you will chose to posture yourself to respond in prayer for the shift, I want to say to you: Too much is at stake. Now is not a time to sleep or slumber.
HOW THEN DO WE POSTURE FOR THIS END TIME SEASON
I would like to wrap this article up by ending where I began, with the end time seasonal shift that I believe we have entered into. As I prayed in preparation for, and then joined in with thousands of others in my generation for the CALL in Nashville just a few days ago, I have been hit continually with one booming thought: He is coming again. I believe, now perhaps more then ever I discern a seriousness in the air that we each need to get right with the Lord – it is a call to total, not partial, consecration. Love the Lord your God with all of yourself. All means all. It is a time to renew our covenant with Him as our lover God, King – our husband.
In order to usher in the next 40 yrs this is what it is going to take: a generation given over to Holy Love. Movements were ushered in on the backs of the lives and choices of people in the late 60’s. A counter movement will be ushered in the same way, through the lives of people (us). I believe wholeheartedly the ‘now’ call to reverse the curse of 1967 through massive prayer and fasting. I also believe this ‘now’ call is landing in the midst of a larger end-time landscape that is developing. I believe the generation that is rising, and being brought to spiritual birth right now, is full of end-time evangelists, end-time prophets, end-time Nazarites – they are the end-time warriors of the God. They will reap the end time harvest and usher in the coming of the King of Glory. What I am saying is this: I actually believe there is something even bigger than reversing the summer of 67 that is coming down the pike. As my friend Rob Parker often says, “Eternity is about to swallow up time.” It is time to get right with God and seek him in radical devotion like we have never done before. It is time to posture ourselves in massive prayer and fasting to see the tide shift in our nation(s). It is time to step into our end time purpose to bring healing to the nations and usher in the coming of our King. It is time.
He is coming again, people get ready.
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Revolutionaries..
Revolutionaries recognize that spiritual success is more about surrender than results. They see things through a completely different lens. They know that God examines the fruit of someone's life, but the real fruit of the Kingdom is flat-out no-excuses obedience to God. Such submission represents major victories to the Kingdom. Why? Because life is war, and every time a soldier willingly engages in sacrificial battle for the King, Christ's honor is advanced. Revolutionaries' complete and total surrender to Him and His cause is the essence of eternal victory! - Geroge Barna
~ I wanna be a "Revolutionary" ..how about you?
~ I wanna be a "Revolutionary" ..how about you?
Friday, July 13, 2007
Back To The Cross
"For I determined to not know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified (I Corinthians 2:2)."
Though Paul had quite a bit of knowledge and many things to say and teach the Corinthians, he determined to become a man of one subject: Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.
We must become foolish in order to be wise.
We must give up everything in order to get back everything.
We must become weak in order to be strong.
We must die in order to live.
We can quote these teachings of Jesus, seek to imitate Him as our Example, strive to walk the narrow Way, and even accomplish many good deeds in His Name. But apart from the Cross these activities are wood, hay and stubble. The moment we are challenged or confronted by the opposition we will fall away. Perhaps we can appear to be patient, but a day comes when we lose our patience. Perhaps we can appear to be gentle, but a day comes when our roughness is revealed. Perhaps we can appear to be humble, but a day comes when pride is discovered in us and we fall. Perhaps we can obey the letter of the law and appear outwardly to others as being righteous, but when alone and faced with the secrets of our heart and mind we discover that the inside of the cup is full of uncleanness.
In calling us to come back to the Cross, God is asking us lay down our lives and embrace the Wisdom of death, burial, resurrection, and ascension in order to live as sons and daughters within the Kingdom of God. Apart from the Cross we can neither enter the Kingdom nor live in the Spirit, no matter how great the desire. For apart from the Cross, we do not know what it is to turn the other cheek, to go the extra mile, to love our enemies, to pray for those who persecute us. Apart from the Cross, we do not know what it is to submit to the will of God, accept suffering, and cast ourselves upon Him.
Apart from the Cross, we do not know what Resurrection is.
Religion seeks to reform a man; the Cross seeks to crucify him. Religion may fail to bring about the desired result, but the Cross never fails to achieve its end. Mankind will pursue morality, virtue, spirituality, even perform religious works and good deeds, in order to avoid death on a Cross. But there are no wounds, no scars, no evidence of having ever died and been made alive unto God. Either a man has never died, or he has died and been raised again. You cannot fake a resurrection.
The Cross is the means by which God reduces us to Christ, that we may be raised to new Life. What cannot be accomplished in a lifetime of self-effort is easily accomplished in God through the Cross. We may take many shortcuts along the way and attempt to escape the inevitable, but the day we cease striving and meekly accept the Cross we find everything is done for us. In fact, death by crucifixion cannot be accomplished by suicide. We cannot crucify ourselves. The instrument of our death is chosen for us, as well as the manner in which it is carried out, the timing and the duration of the execution - all is controlled by Another. There is nothing to be done, for we must submit to the Unseen Hand and cast ourselves completely upon Him.
If we will follow Jesus, we must take up the cross daily, deny ourselves, and follow Him (Luke 9:23).
Though Paul had quite a bit of knowledge and many things to say and teach the Corinthians, he determined to become a man of one subject: Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.
We must become foolish in order to be wise.
We must give up everything in order to get back everything.
We must become weak in order to be strong.
We must die in order to live.
We can quote these teachings of Jesus, seek to imitate Him as our Example, strive to walk the narrow Way, and even accomplish many good deeds in His Name. But apart from the Cross these activities are wood, hay and stubble. The moment we are challenged or confronted by the opposition we will fall away. Perhaps we can appear to be patient, but a day comes when we lose our patience. Perhaps we can appear to be gentle, but a day comes when our roughness is revealed. Perhaps we can appear to be humble, but a day comes when pride is discovered in us and we fall. Perhaps we can obey the letter of the law and appear outwardly to others as being righteous, but when alone and faced with the secrets of our heart and mind we discover that the inside of the cup is full of uncleanness.
In calling us to come back to the Cross, God is asking us lay down our lives and embrace the Wisdom of death, burial, resurrection, and ascension in order to live as sons and daughters within the Kingdom of God. Apart from the Cross we can neither enter the Kingdom nor live in the Spirit, no matter how great the desire. For apart from the Cross, we do not know what it is to turn the other cheek, to go the extra mile, to love our enemies, to pray for those who persecute us. Apart from the Cross, we do not know what it is to submit to the will of God, accept suffering, and cast ourselves upon Him.
Apart from the Cross, we do not know what Resurrection is.
Religion seeks to reform a man; the Cross seeks to crucify him. Religion may fail to bring about the desired result, but the Cross never fails to achieve its end. Mankind will pursue morality, virtue, spirituality, even perform religious works and good deeds, in order to avoid death on a Cross. But there are no wounds, no scars, no evidence of having ever died and been made alive unto God. Either a man has never died, or he has died and been raised again. You cannot fake a resurrection.
The Cross is the means by which God reduces us to Christ, that we may be raised to new Life. What cannot be accomplished in a lifetime of self-effort is easily accomplished in God through the Cross. We may take many shortcuts along the way and attempt to escape the inevitable, but the day we cease striving and meekly accept the Cross we find everything is done for us. In fact, death by crucifixion cannot be accomplished by suicide. We cannot crucify ourselves. The instrument of our death is chosen for us, as well as the manner in which it is carried out, the timing and the duration of the execution - all is controlled by Another. There is nothing to be done, for we must submit to the Unseen Hand and cast ourselves completely upon Him.
If we will follow Jesus, we must take up the cross daily, deny ourselves, and follow Him (Luke 9:23).
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
The Law of Life
So how do we touch Jesus directly? "He who comes to Me." Can it really be this easy? A better question is, why should it be difficult? I can come to Him whether I am driving down the street, walking down the sidewalk, or sitting in my chair. I can come to Him whether it is Sunday morning or Tuesday night or Friday afternoon. I can come to Him in a large group, or with two or three, or all by myself. I can come to Him in the desert, in the garden, in the church building, or in the prison camp. I am prevented from doing many things due to circumstance, location, state of mind, or resources. But one thing I cannot be prevented from doing is coming to the Lord.
Must I stand, or bow down, or lay on my face? Am I supposed to whisper, shout, or say nothing at all? Should I sing, or pray, or recite the Scriptures, or be still? What difference does it make? None at all, so long as I come to the Lord. He does not tell us what to do, what to say, or what to expect. He just says, "Come to Me, and you will not be hungry or thirsty." Religion would like to teach us a method and a formula for everything, but Christ is no religion. There are no ceremonies, rituals, rites of initiation or barriers to entry as in the Old Testament. Nor do we have to spend hours and days praying, fasting, or meditating. This is a New Way, and this Way is open. All we have to do is present ourselves to Christ.
Many of us are still prone to asking a lot of questions about how to have this kind of relationship with Christ. But if we will trust in the Life, then the Life will lead us. By comparison, I am not concerned with the Law of Gravity. I do not worry about floating away into space, and I do not have to keep reminding myself to walk according to the Law of Gravity. I just go along as usual and never give it a thought, confident that gravity will keep me where I am supposed to be. Even if I do not know there is such a thing as gravity I am nevertheless held firmly to the earth. If we would have that same faith in the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus then all our questions would be answered. This Law of Life will operate whether we understand it or know about it (of course, we do want to know how it operates so we can cooperate with it, but it works in spite of our ignorance).
The branch who abides in the Vine does not have to know how it abides. So long as it abides, it shares in the Life of the Vine. It does not have to ask how it works, and it does not have to be concerned with producing the fruit. It does nothing but abide, and the Life of the Vine keeps it. The Vine and the Branches is a reality; it is not a parable. Jesus did not say, "The Kingdom of God is like the Vine and the Branches." That would have been a parable. Instead, Jesus says, "I am the Vine, and you are the Branches." This is no simile or metaphor, it is reality. What does it mean? That we are one, and we share in a common Life. Everything happens according to the Law of Life in Christ. But since it is easy to become philosophical and ethereal concerning this, let us quickly bring it down to a practical application and discover how we may cooperate with it......
The Law of Gravity brings objects to the ground. It does not matter to Gravity how large or small the object is. It works the same with acorns as it does with airplanes. Likewise, I know today that it does not matter if I am called upon to wash dishes, mow the lawn, write an article, preach a message, cast out a demon, love my neighbor, forgive my enemy, or lay down my life. It makes no difference to the Life. It is not I, but Christ, who does these things. The principle is the same, and the Life cannot fail. If I give up my life, if I give up my self-effort, then He begins to do what I cannot do. This is Christianity.
The Law of Life means that I do not try to be or do anything in my own strength. Instead, the Life leads me, the Life instructs me, and the Life gives me the words and the actions. I am not a Christian because I believe in the Bible, follow the teachings of Jesus, and live a good life. I am a Christian because Christ is my Life. Since Christ is my Life, I no longer live, but it is Christ who lives in me. I do nothing to achieve this, it just is. Because He lives, I live. In Him I live; in Him I move; in Him I have my being (Acts 17:28a).
Again, let us make this practical. Does a fish become a fish by swimming under the water, or does it swim under the water because it is a fish? Does it say to itself, "I am a fish, therefore, I must learn to act like a fish. I must remember to breathe through my gills and move my body back and forth." Absolutely not. Or what about a bird? Does a bird become a bird once it learns to fly through the air? Or does it fly through the air because it is a bird? Which is it? Of course, the bird is a bird, and therefore it flies. It does not have to be instructed per se, but when it is pushed out of the nest it flaps its wings. It is its nature to do so. So doing does not create being, doing flows out of being.
Now the Law of Life in Christ does not try to make us into something we are not. The very presence of the Life in us demonstrates that Christ already indwells us. We are not trying to be like Christ, and we are not trying to live like a Christian. Since we ARE in Him, we WALK in Him. Our works come from what we are, not what we are trying to be. We do not receive His Life so that we can work very hard to be like Jesus. That is like the fish having to remind itself that since it is a fish therefore it must swim. Or, like a bird having to keep telling itself through positive confession that it must remember to fly. Yet Christians keep reminding themselves, "Now that I am a Christian, I must remember to read the Bible, pray, and live a holy life. I must not forget to love my neighbor and smile no matter what happens." Can you see the problem here? With this mentality we cannot cooperate with the Life, because we would be depending on our life instead of His.
This is why we cannot look for a method, formula, or technique to try and teach people spirituality. It is like taking a bird and putting it in a school to teach it to fly. Just let the bird go and it will fly all by itself! Why do we not take a fish and give it a technique for swimming? You know very well that when you drop the fish into the water it will just swim away of its own accord. But we try to teach Christians three keys to spiritual growth, or four principles of Christian living, or seven ways to overcome, or a ten-step process to this thing or that thing. What we should be doing is letting these people loose and allowing them to discover how wonderful this Life in them is, how the Christ Who indwells them will teach them everything. THE LAW OF LIFE MEANS "ABIDE IN ME, AND YOU WILL PRODUCE MUCH FRUIT"
"I am the Vine, and you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, will produce much fruit: for apart from Me you can do nothing (John 15:5)."
It is amazing the number of Christians who believe it is up to them to produce fruit. This teaching is, to them, like trying to force a square peg through a round hole. They become obsessed with making something happen, thinking it is all up to their effort, their willpower, their determination, to grow up into Christ. To suggest that they cease from their labor is to make light of all their hard work up until now, and this offends them! They begin in the Spirit, but look to the flesh (self-effort) to complete the work. That is not the Christ-Life! The fruit will come of its own accord, provided we abide in Him.
But look at the last part of the verse: "Apart from Me you can do nothing." It is similar to John 5:15, which says, "The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do: for whatever the Father does, the Son does." And John 14:10: "I speak nothing of Myself. It is the Father that dwells in Me, and He does the works." As the Son can do nothing apart from the Father Who dwells within Him, so we can do nothing apart from the Son who dwells within us. The question is not whether or not we will work out our salvation, but under whose power will we work it out? Is it our willpower, or is it Christ? Is it our effort, or is it the Law of Life?
Are we making a case for idle passivity? By no means. We are not suggesting that Christians cease all effort, only that Christians cease all SELF-effort. The Law of Life is more powerful and active than anything generated or maintained by self-effort. With self-effort I am always at the mercy of how I feel. If I feel spiritual then I can pray for hours at a time. But if I do not feel spiritual then I cannot even pray five minutes. This is why so many believers live their lives like a roller-coaster. They do not live according to principle, according to the Law of Life. Thinking it is up to them to become Christlike, they turn an easy yoke and a light burden into a difficult yoke and a heavy burden - difficult and heavy for themselves, and for those who must live and work around them.
The one who rests in Christ will produce more fruit than the one who strives with self-effort. This is demonstrated in Scripture and in the real-life experience of countless saints. Paul proclaimed, "I labor, striving according to His working which works in me mightily." There is no question that Paul worked, labored, and toiled. But the difference with Paul is he knew that he was laboring according to Christ working in him. Was Paul lazy? By contrast, he was more fruitful than ever. The end result is his statement, "I labored more abundantly than them all," quickly qualified with, "yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me (I Corinthians 15:10)." The "I can do all things" must always be followed with "through Christ who strengthens me." If we trust in the Life we will be anything but passive. THE LAW OF LIFE MEANS CHRIST WILL TEACH US EVERYTHING WE NEED TO KNOW
"The anointing which you received from Him remains in you. And no need are you constantly having that anyone be constantly teaching you. But even as His anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true and is not a lie, and even as He taught you, be constantly abiding in Him (I John 2:27, Wuest Expanded Translation)."
Now the Scripture says that we do not need any man to teach us, for the Anointing (Christ) Who indwells us will teach us all things. More than anything else I consider myself a teacher, so I pondered this for a long time. What use is there for me to teach anything? For that matter, why do we need teachers at all? Would it not be better for each of us to be taught of God directly, without the interference of a human teacher? Then I received insight into this Scripture. It cannot be telling us that we do not need teachers, for it was God who gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers to His Church, to encourage, edify, and establish all of us deeper into Christ. Can the Holy Spirit in John contradict the Holy Spirit in Paul? By no means. What then? John was the sole survivor of the first twelve apostles, and now he is very old. Naturally he is concerned with the welfare of the Church after his death. So God comforts John, and then John comforts us, with this truth: even if we do not have access to the apostle, or prophet, or evangelist, or pastor and teacher, we are still instructed inwardly. The Church that Jesus is building is not dependant upon the great men or women of God. We are grateful to the ministry gifts when we have them, but we are not dependent upon them for our Life. The Life is greater than the ministers through which it may be ministered.
Some feel they just cannot get along without consulting someone who is perceived to be a spiritual authority so they can ask them what they should do. Such dependence upon man can become a snare - both for the ones seeking advice and for the ones giving advice. At times we should seek out the advice of others, but the point is that the Life will instruct us individually, and when the Life within us responds, then we "need no man to teach us". The Life will also "amen" what others tell us, or it will voice its disagreement with what we are told. We can trust the Life completely, whereas we dare not put confidence in man, no matter how good and spiritual the counsel may be.
The problem with us is that we do not have the patience to listen for this inward instruction. We too quickly put our confidence in flesh and blood. It is easier and speedier to have someone tell us, "Yes, you should do this" or "No, you should not do that." The question is not should or should not; the question is, how is the Life instructing you? If we do not know what the Life is telling us, then we should be still and be quiet until we DO know. But all too often we know well enough what we are to do, and we are looking for a way out of it; or we are trying to get confirmation from this thing or that thing before we will obey. This is why we have a hard time hearing to begin with. How many times does God have to repeat Himself? How many times does He have to confirm something before we will obey? It sounds spiritual and humble to question and wait, but if the Life has already instructed us then any delay on our part is really disobedience.
Must I stand, or bow down, or lay on my face? Am I supposed to whisper, shout, or say nothing at all? Should I sing, or pray, or recite the Scriptures, or be still? What difference does it make? None at all, so long as I come to the Lord. He does not tell us what to do, what to say, or what to expect. He just says, "Come to Me, and you will not be hungry or thirsty." Religion would like to teach us a method and a formula for everything, but Christ is no religion. There are no ceremonies, rituals, rites of initiation or barriers to entry as in the Old Testament. Nor do we have to spend hours and days praying, fasting, or meditating. This is a New Way, and this Way is open. All we have to do is present ourselves to Christ.
Many of us are still prone to asking a lot of questions about how to have this kind of relationship with Christ. But if we will trust in the Life, then the Life will lead us. By comparison, I am not concerned with the Law of Gravity. I do not worry about floating away into space, and I do not have to keep reminding myself to walk according to the Law of Gravity. I just go along as usual and never give it a thought, confident that gravity will keep me where I am supposed to be. Even if I do not know there is such a thing as gravity I am nevertheless held firmly to the earth. If we would have that same faith in the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus then all our questions would be answered. This Law of Life will operate whether we understand it or know about it (of course, we do want to know how it operates so we can cooperate with it, but it works in spite of our ignorance).
The branch who abides in the Vine does not have to know how it abides. So long as it abides, it shares in the Life of the Vine. It does not have to ask how it works, and it does not have to be concerned with producing the fruit. It does nothing but abide, and the Life of the Vine keeps it. The Vine and the Branches is a reality; it is not a parable. Jesus did not say, "The Kingdom of God is like the Vine and the Branches." That would have been a parable. Instead, Jesus says, "I am the Vine, and you are the Branches." This is no simile or metaphor, it is reality. What does it mean? That we are one, and we share in a common Life. Everything happens according to the Law of Life in Christ. But since it is easy to become philosophical and ethereal concerning this, let us quickly bring it down to a practical application and discover how we may cooperate with it......
The Law of Gravity brings objects to the ground. It does not matter to Gravity how large or small the object is. It works the same with acorns as it does with airplanes. Likewise, I know today that it does not matter if I am called upon to wash dishes, mow the lawn, write an article, preach a message, cast out a demon, love my neighbor, forgive my enemy, or lay down my life. It makes no difference to the Life. It is not I, but Christ, who does these things. The principle is the same, and the Life cannot fail. If I give up my life, if I give up my self-effort, then He begins to do what I cannot do. This is Christianity.
The Law of Life means that I do not try to be or do anything in my own strength. Instead, the Life leads me, the Life instructs me, and the Life gives me the words and the actions. I am not a Christian because I believe in the Bible, follow the teachings of Jesus, and live a good life. I am a Christian because Christ is my Life. Since Christ is my Life, I no longer live, but it is Christ who lives in me. I do nothing to achieve this, it just is. Because He lives, I live. In Him I live; in Him I move; in Him I have my being (Acts 17:28a).
Again, let us make this practical. Does a fish become a fish by swimming under the water, or does it swim under the water because it is a fish? Does it say to itself, "I am a fish, therefore, I must learn to act like a fish. I must remember to breathe through my gills and move my body back and forth." Absolutely not. Or what about a bird? Does a bird become a bird once it learns to fly through the air? Or does it fly through the air because it is a bird? Which is it? Of course, the bird is a bird, and therefore it flies. It does not have to be instructed per se, but when it is pushed out of the nest it flaps its wings. It is its nature to do so. So doing does not create being, doing flows out of being.
Now the Law of Life in Christ does not try to make us into something we are not. The very presence of the Life in us demonstrates that Christ already indwells us. We are not trying to be like Christ, and we are not trying to live like a Christian. Since we ARE in Him, we WALK in Him. Our works come from what we are, not what we are trying to be. We do not receive His Life so that we can work very hard to be like Jesus. That is like the fish having to remind itself that since it is a fish therefore it must swim. Or, like a bird having to keep telling itself through positive confession that it must remember to fly. Yet Christians keep reminding themselves, "Now that I am a Christian, I must remember to read the Bible, pray, and live a holy life. I must not forget to love my neighbor and smile no matter what happens." Can you see the problem here? With this mentality we cannot cooperate with the Life, because we would be depending on our life instead of His.
This is why we cannot look for a method, formula, or technique to try and teach people spirituality. It is like taking a bird and putting it in a school to teach it to fly. Just let the bird go and it will fly all by itself! Why do we not take a fish and give it a technique for swimming? You know very well that when you drop the fish into the water it will just swim away of its own accord. But we try to teach Christians three keys to spiritual growth, or four principles of Christian living, or seven ways to overcome, or a ten-step process to this thing or that thing. What we should be doing is letting these people loose and allowing them to discover how wonderful this Life in them is, how the Christ Who indwells them will teach them everything. THE LAW OF LIFE MEANS "ABIDE IN ME, AND YOU WILL PRODUCE MUCH FRUIT"
"I am the Vine, and you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, will produce much fruit: for apart from Me you can do nothing (John 15:5)."
It is amazing the number of Christians who believe it is up to them to produce fruit. This teaching is, to them, like trying to force a square peg through a round hole. They become obsessed with making something happen, thinking it is all up to their effort, their willpower, their determination, to grow up into Christ. To suggest that they cease from their labor is to make light of all their hard work up until now, and this offends them! They begin in the Spirit, but look to the flesh (self-effort) to complete the work. That is not the Christ-Life! The fruit will come of its own accord, provided we abide in Him.
But look at the last part of the verse: "Apart from Me you can do nothing." It is similar to John 5:15, which says, "The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do: for whatever the Father does, the Son does." And John 14:10: "I speak nothing of Myself. It is the Father that dwells in Me, and He does the works." As the Son can do nothing apart from the Father Who dwells within Him, so we can do nothing apart from the Son who dwells within us. The question is not whether or not we will work out our salvation, but under whose power will we work it out? Is it our willpower, or is it Christ? Is it our effort, or is it the Law of Life?
Are we making a case for idle passivity? By no means. We are not suggesting that Christians cease all effort, only that Christians cease all SELF-effort. The Law of Life is more powerful and active than anything generated or maintained by self-effort. With self-effort I am always at the mercy of how I feel. If I feel spiritual then I can pray for hours at a time. But if I do not feel spiritual then I cannot even pray five minutes. This is why so many believers live their lives like a roller-coaster. They do not live according to principle, according to the Law of Life. Thinking it is up to them to become Christlike, they turn an easy yoke and a light burden into a difficult yoke and a heavy burden - difficult and heavy for themselves, and for those who must live and work around them.
The one who rests in Christ will produce more fruit than the one who strives with self-effort. This is demonstrated in Scripture and in the real-life experience of countless saints. Paul proclaimed, "I labor, striving according to His working which works in me mightily." There is no question that Paul worked, labored, and toiled. But the difference with Paul is he knew that he was laboring according to Christ working in him. Was Paul lazy? By contrast, he was more fruitful than ever. The end result is his statement, "I labored more abundantly than them all," quickly qualified with, "yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me (I Corinthians 15:10)." The "I can do all things" must always be followed with "through Christ who strengthens me." If we trust in the Life we will be anything but passive. THE LAW OF LIFE MEANS CHRIST WILL TEACH US EVERYTHING WE NEED TO KNOW
"The anointing which you received from Him remains in you. And no need are you constantly having that anyone be constantly teaching you. But even as His anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true and is not a lie, and even as He taught you, be constantly abiding in Him (I John 2:27, Wuest Expanded Translation)."
Now the Scripture says that we do not need any man to teach us, for the Anointing (Christ) Who indwells us will teach us all things. More than anything else I consider myself a teacher, so I pondered this for a long time. What use is there for me to teach anything? For that matter, why do we need teachers at all? Would it not be better for each of us to be taught of God directly, without the interference of a human teacher? Then I received insight into this Scripture. It cannot be telling us that we do not need teachers, for it was God who gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers to His Church, to encourage, edify, and establish all of us deeper into Christ. Can the Holy Spirit in John contradict the Holy Spirit in Paul? By no means. What then? John was the sole survivor of the first twelve apostles, and now he is very old. Naturally he is concerned with the welfare of the Church after his death. So God comforts John, and then John comforts us, with this truth: even if we do not have access to the apostle, or prophet, or evangelist, or pastor and teacher, we are still instructed inwardly. The Church that Jesus is building is not dependant upon the great men or women of God. We are grateful to the ministry gifts when we have them, but we are not dependent upon them for our Life. The Life is greater than the ministers through which it may be ministered.
Some feel they just cannot get along without consulting someone who is perceived to be a spiritual authority so they can ask them what they should do. Such dependence upon man can become a snare - both for the ones seeking advice and for the ones giving advice. At times we should seek out the advice of others, but the point is that the Life will instruct us individually, and when the Life within us responds, then we "need no man to teach us". The Life will also "amen" what others tell us, or it will voice its disagreement with what we are told. We can trust the Life completely, whereas we dare not put confidence in man, no matter how good and spiritual the counsel may be.
The problem with us is that we do not have the patience to listen for this inward instruction. We too quickly put our confidence in flesh and blood. It is easier and speedier to have someone tell us, "Yes, you should do this" or "No, you should not do that." The question is not should or should not; the question is, how is the Life instructing you? If we do not know what the Life is telling us, then we should be still and be quiet until we DO know. But all too often we know well enough what we are to do, and we are looking for a way out of it; or we are trying to get confirmation from this thing or that thing before we will obey. This is why we have a hard time hearing to begin with. How many times does God have to repeat Himself? How many times does He have to confirm something before we will obey? It sounds spiritual and humble to question and wait, but if the Life has already instructed us then any delay on our part is really disobedience.
Friday, July 06, 2007
Sorrow But No Regrets
This is an excerpt from an article I just read in Christianity Today written by Christine A. Scheller:
I can look at this journey and see a trail of folly. Or I can look back with tenderness and see churches and pastors that taught me all I know about loving Jesus and being loved by Him. I choose tenderness because Jesus Christ exists on earth within his sin-damaged band of followers. This is the realization that breaks us - there is no BETTER church.
"Sometimes we endure the judgment of God because we happen to belong to a people or a group that, as a whole, deserves the judment", CT managing editor Mark Galli wrote recently in a blog post. "Some therefore suffer for their sins, while others suffer for the sins of others. The former is the suffering of cleansing; the latter is substitutionary suffering. Both are redemptive, and thus both can be accepted with grace."
In one of my favourite books, "Into the Depts of God", Calvin Miller writes, "The trials that keep us kneeling before our lifelong assignments are never haphazard. All the suffering that are thrust upon us can serve to bring us to maturity". Then he makes this terrible statement: "Hurt is the essential ingredient of ultimate Christ-likeness."
I can look at this journey and see a trail of folly. Or I can look back with tenderness and see churches and pastors that taught me all I know about loving Jesus and being loved by Him. I choose tenderness because Jesus Christ exists on earth within his sin-damaged band of followers. This is the realization that breaks us - there is no BETTER church.
"Sometimes we endure the judgment of God because we happen to belong to a people or a group that, as a whole, deserves the judment", CT managing editor Mark Galli wrote recently in a blog post. "Some therefore suffer for their sins, while others suffer for the sins of others. The former is the suffering of cleansing; the latter is substitutionary suffering. Both are redemptive, and thus both can be accepted with grace."
In one of my favourite books, "Into the Depts of God", Calvin Miller writes, "The trials that keep us kneeling before our lifelong assignments are never haphazard. All the suffering that are thrust upon us can serve to bring us to maturity". Then he makes this terrible statement: "Hurt is the essential ingredient of ultimate Christ-likeness."
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