Show Us Your Glory by Rick Pino

This song just has me undone...

ALSO - WATCH THE JESUS CULTURE AWAKENING LIVE WEB STREAM at www.awakening2011.com  !!! DO IT!!!

Jesus Culture Awakening Conference in Chicago

Folks - my heart is burning.

I just got done watching the Jesus Culture Awakening stream. You can watch it live for free at www.awakening2011.com, but I actually purchased the ability to play it back over the next two weeks (just 10 bucks), and I highly recommend that option, especially if you work a normal workday.

Banning Liebscher and Kim Walker-Smith just left me in pieces. Well, Kim had me sobbing and then Banning had me burning up with all sorts of desire for being in the secret place with Jesus. This is where revival is birthed - in the hearts of a generation that lives for and out of the secret place - out of building a personal history with God. Mmm, soo good.

More later.

The Three Chairs: Practicing the Prophetic

Several things I loved about today:

*We had fish for dinner. Ha! Good stuff...

*I was able to chat on the phone for 40 minutes with a revivalist girl from Michigan (who did 2 years of Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry) and recently moved to the valley.

• She just visited church on Sunday, and is coming back next Sunday. Her presence in Arizona and her interest in our church is SUCH an answer to prayer. One of the things Emily (my fellow revivalist buddy) and I pray for extremely often is for God to send us ready-made revivalists. And by "send us" I mean both to our church, as new members who want to get plugged in and help make things happen, OR as just part of the greater network of contacts and new friends we are building in the area. Whether this girl becomes part of our lives for the former reason, or for the latter reason (or both), it's going to be great having her around. I'm thrilled. I had a grin on my face the rest of the afternoon! I love answers to prayer. I love it that God hears our prayers, period. But then it's astounding to see just how specific he can get when he answers them. Such goodness. BTW - another thing Emily and I pray for is for God to send us those that are ready to be awakened to dreams of revival, destiny, and a supernatural move of God. So...not just the ready-made revivalists, ha! :) We want to help MAKE them, too!

*School of Supernatural Ministry started up again after we all had a bit of a summer break - and that was majorly fantastic. We had a group of around 30 students.  Kris Vallotton taught on the prophetic (not live, rather through a previously recorded DVD), and then we did an activity where we placed three chairs facing a wall, had three volunteers sit in them, and then the guy who runs it pointed at someone out of the rest of the students. The three volunteers in chairs, who couldn't see anything and didn't know who had been chosen, were to see if they got a prophetic word for that person. Two out of the three had a word, and once those had been shared, the lady who had been chosen explained to us how those words applied to her life. Pretty cool, huh?! I was glad that one of the brave volunteers didn't actually get something, or at least, didn't share it, only because hopefully that makes everyone realize that it is completely okay to not have anything! And practicing the prophetic is essential. It helps us identify how it is we hear the voice of God and feel his presence, and that way we can apply it out there in the "real world", where there's obviously not a contained, controlled environment for stepping out in the prophetic.

God is a rockstar!

School of Supernatural Ministry Starts Up Again

I've been looking forward to August 1st, 2011, all summer long! Two Rivers School Supernatural Ministry starts up again tonight, at 630pm.

I believe we're going up to a new atmosphere in this next season. 

We're going to soar with Jesus. And see the treasures of God, and partake of his divine nature. WOOT!

Let the Love of God Wreck Your Heart

Find 15 minutes, and a quiet spot...Then hit play.

Let God love you with this spontaneous oracle from Misty Edwards/IHOP-KC's Prayer Room.

Let him wreck your heart. He is so lovesick for you.

"I see strength in you."

"I knew what I was getting into when I called you, and still I called you."

"Will you marry me? Will you take my name? All that's mine is yours."

"She said yes! She said yes!"

It's a Beautiful Day in Paradise

I'm sitting in my kitchen in metro-Phoenix, Arizona, looking out at sunshine and green, sipping some coffee, sending and receiving some "let's schedule this today" texts, and answering company emails. It's the beginning part of my day - where I relax, remember I'm Abba's child, and drink some much-needed caffeine. I have a penchant for sleeping as little as possible. Something I'd like to change.


It's been an exciting summer. Running all the way home, away from a haboob that was chasing me at 15 miles an hour (yeah, look that one up on Wikipedia - "haboob"). Reconnecting with high school and college buddies and making some new memories to add to our treasure chest of old ones. Drinking in the lushness of the Wisconsin and Michigan countryside, watching pink and purple sunsets whilst digging my feet into the coolness of a sandy beach, straightening a stunning bride's dress, and making sure her make-up was still picture-perfect, canoeing it up at Youth and College & Career camp, and this time, being the crazy one who splashed others and wasn't so afraid to tip after all. *Grin* I'm also stepping out a lot more, almost as if it were second nature, during ministry times. This is significant for me because every time someone calls for ministry teams, and every time they look over at me to be part of them, I just want to dig a hole and crawl into it. Or disappear altogether. Spiritually, something inside of me wants to NOT pray for ANYONE. And for a long time I was directly fighting this, trying to break past that feeling, knowing I had to push through in order to bless others. But I think there's just been so much grace this season to step out without even having to have this huge argument inside myself. Things are clicking. The more I push through, the easier it gets.

Combined with a personal three-day retreat to the White Mountains, alone with God and nature, jamming with my friends Emily and Jesse, cooking a lot of Asian food, especially on family dinner nights, and going running 4 miles three times a week - this summer has just been excellent. Most excellent.

All this while gobbling up revivalist books. And dreaming big. And joining a revivalist networking website. And holding and/or attending prayer meetings with all sorts of wonderful sons and daughters of God from other parts of the Valley. And starting up an intercession prayer meeting the 3rd Friday of every month. And being hardcore with my little bro (I won't tell you what that entails, but it's awesome). I'm journaling any thought as it comes to me. I'm experiencing a new level of creativity, and I'm loving it. It's good. It's SO good. :)

We were created for union with God, in the simple activities of just being, of just living. We were created to love him and be loved by him. Our primary purpose of existing.

I'm grabbing a hold of this truth in a whole new way.

The sound of waves. The wind in the trees. The brightness of White-Mountain star-filled night skies. The pluck of a guitar string. The smell of an old book.

Making my bed. Cleaning the bathroom. Washing the floors.

I can find Him anywhere, while doing anything. In the simplest, most mundane activity...in the simplest of interactions with a stranger. In the deepest of conversations with a bosom friend. Or in the silence of an empty building.

There He is, and there am I.

And I'm never alone.

I'm always known, always loved, and I have a 24/7 direct line to God.

It's pretty rad. :)

Jesus Began a Revolution with ONE Word

"Jesus began a revolution with one word: when he said the word 'Father', he changed everything. And now he's invited us into this reality, into this place of belonging, of calling God our Papa, our Daddy, our Abba."

Hit "play"  on the video below, and find a corner where you can cry your eyes out...

Abba

You're more real than the ground I'm standing on

You're more real than the wind in my lungs

Your thoughts define me, you're inside me
You're my reality

Abba, I belong to you

You're closer than the skin on my bones
You're closer than the song on my tongue

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Last night I read the book "Heaven is Real", by Todd Burpo, the pastor of a church in a small town called Imperial, in Nebraska. He is also the father of a boy named Colton, who at 3 years and 10 months old, was in surgery after his appendix burst, near death, when he was taken up into Heaven and was able to see some pretty incredible things. Much of the story surrounds how they realized Colton had had a real supernatural experience.

It's a really precious book. I recommend it. There was one spot that hit me really hard.

In a good way, of course.

The family was on their way to their Good Friday communion service, and Todd asked Colton if he knew why Jesus died on the cross:

I said, "Colton, do you know why Jesus died on the cross?"

He nodded, surprising me a bit.

"Okay, why?"

"Well, Jesus told me he died on the cross so we could go see his Dad."

In my mind's eye, I saw Jesus, with Colton on his lap, brushing past all the seminary degrees, knocking down theological treatises stacked high as skyscrapers, and boiling down fancy words like propitiation and soteriology to something a child could understand: "I had to died on the cross so that people on earth could come see my Dad."

Colton's answer to my question was the simplest and sweetest declaration of the gospel I have ever heard. 

I thought again about the difference between grown-up and childlike faith.

Driving down Broadway, I decided I liked Colton's way better. For a couple of minutes, I cruised along in silence. Then I turned to him and smiled. "Hey, do you wanna preach on Sunday?"

(From pp. 111-112 of Heaven is for Real, by Todd Burpo with Lynn Vincent)

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The most important message that we can take to the world, the most transforming news of all: Jesus came so that we might know his Abba Father as our very own.