Lent Day 25: The Crazies Come Out, But They’ve Been There All ALong
We’ve been fasting. We’ve been praying. And things are happening. Some things in the spiritual realm are stirred.
I got a phone call the other day from a man I don’t know and the conversation went like this:
Caller: Are you the pastor?
Me: Yes.
Caller: I have some things I want you to pray about. Do you have a pen and paper ready?
Me: Uhh … sure.
Caller: I’m requesting prayer for me and my soon to be wife. We’re both born again, Spirit-filled believers. But mostly I’d like you to pray for her because she is filled with the spirit of divination.
Me: LOL. (I didn’t say “LOL”. I actually laughed out loud). Did you just say you were both filled with the Spirit of God, and that she works for Satan and you want to marry her?
Caller: Yes, and according to my understanding of the demonic, blah blah blah. (Honestly, my ears were ringing and I had trouble focusing at this point)
Me: I don’t mean to be rude. But could you define what you mean by “spirit of divination”? Because we may not be talking about the same thing.
Caller: Yes, she reads palms, tarot cards, tells fortunes, dark magic and other stuff.
Me: I don’t mean to be offensive, but you are not filled with the Holy Spirit of God if you think God is leading you to connect your life to someone who actually works for Satan. And she is not Spirit filled either. How do you know you are Spirit-filled?
Caller: Sir, I don’t want to wrangle with you about doctrinal issues … blah blah blah … my opinion is … blah blah blah … and I’ve done spiritual mapping and had a friend fast for 35 days … blah blah blah.
Me: Again, how did you know you were filled with the Holy Spirit of God?
Caller: Like I said, I don’t want to wrangle about doctrinal issues. I’d just like you to pray for me and my wife to be that she would be delivered of this spirit of divination …
Me: Okay, let’s pray now.
YIKES!
Like bugs are drawn to light bulbs, the crazies are coming out and finding us. For the past 25 days we’ve been praying and fasting for our families, our church and our city. We’ve been seeking God for a great outpouring of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, a great manifestation of his presence, a pulling down of the spiritual strongholds that are demonic, and that our church becomes a hospital. And since the first week, things like this have been happening.
This guy’s phone call was not ironic it it’s timing. It was one of many times this last month that God has moved on desperate people in response to our prayer. The caller here was hurting, confused, ignorant of the truth, and in the midst of demonic activity. This is not a time for tolerance of other beliefs. This is when the church stands and proclaims Truth in love. The problem was that in the end, the caller was not willing to answer to the questions posed to him. He had all the answers and wanted to teach me all about demonic activity. He didn’t want to “wrangle about doctrinal things”, but was so far off base, that my instant reaction to his dilemma was not for prayer. He needs instruction in truth. He needed light shed on his personal situation. He needed to know that neither he nor she were full of the Holy Spirit. Maybe at one time they were, but now they were not. Repentance was needed. Willingness to re-evaluate Truth was needed. Exorcism was maybe needed. Infilling of God’s SPirit was definitely needed.
And the baptism of the spirit, or the infilling or indwelling, or countless other ways that the book of Acts labels it when a believer is initially filled with the Holy Spirit, it is identifiable the instant it happens. Check out Acts 2,4,8,10,19. They knew the very moment it happened. But yet, so many people are misled by a false-doctrine that the reception of the Holy Spirit is a “receiving Jesus into your heart” when you first believe. Not BIBLICAL! Look at the Biblical accounts. There is a physical manifestation so that the individual who is receiving the spirit will know and those around them will know also.
I prayed for the caller that day, and today. He represents a whole generation of knowledgeable people, thinking they are following after Jesus, but actually is following after his own pursuits and labeling them God’s. It is a religious mask for selfishness. It is demonic.
When the Spirit of Truth comes, Jesus said, he will guide us into all truth. And the Spirit of Truth is the Holy SPirit (John 14).
What does righteousness and wickeness have in common, the Apostle Paul asked in 2 Corinthians 6:14 … and what fellowship can light have with darkness … and what harmony can be between Christ and Belial?
Since receiving the Holy SPirit is essential for salvation (John 3, Romans 8), how do we know (Biblically) when a person has truly received the Holy Spirit? Read the Scriptures, think, and comment below.
Lent Day 24: Again with the coffee
The fasting we’ve been doing as a church during this season of Lent is doing something. On me. Our families. Our church. Our city.
Somebody in our church has been fasting each day, from March 1 to APril 10 (Good Friday), and our focused prayers have been for God to pour out the baptism of his Spirit, that we would begin experiencing a demonstration of God’s presence, that all spiritual strongholds were pulled down, and that our church would become a hospital for the hurting in Anchorage.
Within 3 weeks, we’re seeing answered prayers:
- The first week, a young soldier came into church with red, blotchy eyes. She was seeking a safe place to grieve. Her friend just been killed in a convoy attack in Afghanistan. We are becoming that hospital.
- 3 people received the baptism of the Spirit during the second week of our fasting. It was a life-changing event … and not just for those who received him. Those of us who were praying and a part of it were changed also.
- I talked with a local youth pastor on Monday. He said God was doing things in their church and in him that he’d never experienced before. I think he’s priming people and churches for receiving the baptism of the Spirit. This great outpouring for the city of Anchorage is about to happen.
These are just a few things that God is doing, as we are praying for it. As for myself, I am reminded of how passionate, intense prayer moves God. And I am also reminded of how fasting makes me more passionate and intense about the things of God. It’s a cycle really, and once you get into the vortex, it is a powerful place.
I’ve also noticed that for the past 24 days, I am no longer dependent on food or caffeine to make me feel better. I feel stronger and more mentally alert when my belly is half full.
THINK:
- What are you noticing about your fasting? What is pushing back the plate doing in you physically, spiritually, emotionally, mentally?
- Have your prayers changed in the last 3 weeks?
- Has your relationship/experience with God changed any?
- What prayers are you seeing answered?
Lent, day 18: There is more than this
Danny is going through the God-changes. He’s a normal guy in our church who is coming to grips with a revolution that is taking place within him. The main idea that he’s confronted with: there is more.
There is more to God than warm fuzzies on a Sunday at the church gathering. There is more than giving a tithe. There is more than polite, nice prayers. There is more to God than this.
So I asked him to expound a little on this change taking place within him, and this is what he sat down and wrote:
“Last Sunday in church, as we were praying at the end of the service, I was overwhelmed with the feeling that there were many in that room, me included, that were letting a wall of comfort remain between God and ourselves. God is trying to pour everything into us (his Holy Spirit included) but like Toby has said, God is a gentleman and will not force Himself upon us.
We (I!) put up a wall that keeps God at a distance because there is a deep, deep, DEEP fear of what may happen if we let Him in- if we let our guard (wall) down. We must yield like we have never done before. The problem with yielding like that is that things may come out that we don’t want to, whether it is something about us we don’t want others to see or just something that we know is down in there that we don’t want to see or admit to ourselves.
For me, I think it is anger. The times when I have let it seep closer to the edge, there seems to be an anger inside of me that I am afraid of and don’t want people to see. I fear that if I let it out, I may throw a chair, curse, scream, and my body may even convulse. I know, though, that if I can yield, even to this stuff, that I will be filled with the Spirit. All that stuff is in the way right now. I have my wall up that keeps this stuff in and God out. It has been that way for such a long time (even before I knew about it) that it has become my comfort. I have become accustom to all that junk in me and call it “me”. I have learned to live my life, appear normal to others, and function in society. Why should I change anything?
Heather and I have become aware (or at least open to the possibility) that there is much, much, MUCH more than this available to us in this life, NOW. Any boundary that I try to put on God only separates me from Him more. God has no boundaries so if I hold to the fact that I don’t have to pray out loud to pray well (or raise my hands, fall on my knees, stand up, pretty much do anything that involves movement), I have put a boundary on Him. How am I to know what is possible until I try praying out loud? I do not try it because “churchy” people do it or because a denomination does it, I try it because it is biblical and I have not tried it before and I am tired of status quo. I try it because I see that if I am to love God with all my heart, mind, soul, and strength that it may take some actual talking and maybe even yelling and screaming, dancing, jumping, or falling to the floor. I cannot pray to God with all my heart, soul, and strength when I pray internally. There is little to no emotion happening. It is when I let the words escape from my mouth that they come from my heart and soul.
What is it that we expect from our church? Toby cannot do everything for us. We are called the body, which is the body of Christ. We are his vehicle now that he is not physically here. We are to continue what he started. We are to be as a whole what he was as a person and do as a whole the things he did as a person and be seen as a whole how he was seen as a person. What did Christ do? He healed the sick, he forgave sins, he defied and condemned the “religious” people who thought they had it all figured out.
What do we do? We go to church on Sunday and listen to Toby. We go to a group on Tuesday or Thursday and hang out and then pray half-heartedly. How is that like what Jesus did? How is anything we do as Christians like what the first Christians were? If any one of them were in our church today (even our church), I know that I would probably think he was absolutely nuts. He would wonder why we do so much sitting around, so much talking about spiritual development/growth and our issues and not more praying for the sick and lonely.
He would look at all of us with our I-just-don’t-feel-anything’s and say, “You want to feel something? Try loving the LORD your God with ALL your heart, ALL your soul, ALL your strength, and ALL your mind and love your neighbor as yourself (and think about what the word “all” means). And remember, the love you have for God and the love you have for your neighbor, whoever it may be, are one and the same. You cannot love God and hate your brother. You do that and you will feel something.”
And it begins … wait … it increases
Our Lent focus for the last week and a half has been intense. Those of you fasting have all brought neat comments to the table about what God’s doing in/with you during this season of change in our church and lives.
And this weekend, at our Catalyst event in Fairbanks, it is increasing. Emily, Joe, and Heather received the Holy Spirit last night. And each in a unique way:
- Joe stood with hands in his pockets, with one foot resting on the other. Every once in a while a tear would roll down his cheek and he would raise his hands. His face was toward the sky, talking to God.
- Emily starting praying at the front, standing and weeping. Then she moved to the back of the room and sat in the seats. The service was over, but God wasn’t through with her. Almost everyone had left. She kept praying; her lips moving in quiet prayer.
- Heather prayed for everyone for a while. And after a bit, I saw her and Ellen praying together. When Simeon, the young guy who was speaking at the event, came and said something to her, she just fell on the floor. She had her face to the floor for several minutes, and the next thing I know everyone was laughing their butts off, Heather included! She was leaning on Kate and they both just laughed. I walked around in front of her and knelt down just to see the expression on her face, but all I saw was hair all over the place.
I don’t know what was going on in each of them, but I did hear each of them speaking in tongues. What a promise God has given us, that we would know the very moment it happens. And, as for them, they knew too. This was not just a blessing. This was the infilling of the Holy Spirit.
Our Lent prayers have been for God to pour out the baptism of the Holy Spirit on our church, and after a week and a half of focused prayer, in unity, by the church body … he is doing it. And we are loving it!
Day 7 of our Lent fast … the breaking begins
Sometimes it’s hard to read a face. As a pastor, I’ve learned not to use facial expressions, or the lack thereof to be a measurement of what is going on inside a person. Emotions and feelings don’t always make it to the surface, but it doesn’t mean nothing is going on inside.
Ellen and I got the following email from someone in our church on Monday. It is referring to our time of prayer on Sunday:
“WOW! I have got to tell you guys… I HAVE NEVER FELT GOD MOVE LIKE THAT BEFORE!!! OK, so I’ve felt him move twice before, but second to receiving the spirit, I have really never felt him move like that. When we were praying it was totally amazing! Was I the only one who felt that? Is that what you guys are talking about when you say you can feel God moving? I don’t know how to put into words how it feels … That over powering suffocation/sensation … But, I was still breathing … I loved it … I could breath. It was so peaceful, so easy to pray. I was so relaxed… It’s gotta be the best high that exists. How do I open myself up to him moving more often?!?! That was so awesome!”
I’m finding that you never know what kind of soil a person has in their heart. And in a row of people, while most are thinking about their laundry lists and watching the clock, there may be one sitting there having the experience of their life. The soil in their heart is happy and joyful to be receiving the seed that God is placing in them.
My aim is for us all to get to a point where we are tired of containing what is going on internally and it begins to bubble and erupt, and what God is doing inside us becomes obvious to others. Isn’t that the point of the seed? To appear above ground?
When we really get down to brass tacks, isn’t that a great part of what the Apostle Paul called the “power and demonstration of the Spirit”? His Spirit working in and through ours?
Day 3 without the Supreme Bean
It is Lent and I among other things, I am sacrificing coffee for the next 40 days. I truly love Jesus, at least that’s what I thought when I decided to deny myself coffee for any amount of time at all. I must confess, for every single fast I’ve done over the last few years, I overlooked a cup or six cups of coffee during the day. I felt like I wouldn’t have the energy to get done each day what I needed to get done. But I’ve decided that, like TS Eliot, I have measured out my life with coffee spoons … and my body needed the break from dark, lovely caffeinated coffee. And some things just won’t get done.
Herbal tea just doesn't cut it. Every great Master Chief has massive amounts of coffee supporting him.
Here’s the spiritual revelation I’ve had so far: a morning without coffee is like sleep. And, it is headache central in my noggin! Yesterday, in the kitchen at my school, someone had the audacity to make coffee while I was in there staring into the coffee pot. And I realized that coffe smells like freshly ground heaven.
On top of it all, I was a bit boring yesterday while teaching. I had no energy to be creative and witty or even move around very much.
And today, just after waking up, I needed a nap. I’ve heard Dave Letterman say of himself that he’d drunk way too much coffee, but if it weren’t for the coffee, he’d have no identifiable personality whatsoever. On this third day of my self-intervention, I too feel like coffee is the great sustainer.
“I’ll quit coffee. It won’t be easy drinking my Bailey’s straight, but I’ll get used to it. It’ll still be the best part of waking up.” ~From the television show Will and Grace
The Journey ~ Lent
There is a look that people have on their faces when they get bad news. Your uncle has died in a tragic lion-taming accident … cue the look of shock. You didn’t pass your senior year of high school … cue the look of disbelief. You’re going to fast for the next 40 days … cue the look of shocked disbelief with a slight mixture of hope, resentment and the desire to find a new church.
I loved the look on your faces yesterday when we announced that Lent for those of us in The Journey were going to be more than just setting aside caffeine or chocolate for a month. We’re taking sacrifice seriously … cue the 40 Day Fast.
Starting today and going until Friday, April 10, we are purposefully fasting and praying for God to break through whatever is holding our city, church, families, and selves bound.
THE SCOOP
Prayer: You praying each day for 40 days!
Who are we praying for?
- Our family, our church, our city.
What are we praying for?
- That God would pour out his Spirit (Acts 2, 8, 10, 19) … more specifically that individuals in our families, our church and our city would receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
- That we would experience the power and demonstration of God’s Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:3-5) … specifically in our families, our church and in our city.
- That God would break the hold of evil … in our families, our church and in our city.
- That The Journey would become a hospital for the hurting, in whatever way God wants us to bring healing and wholeness to our city.
When we pray:
- Thank God for basic things in your life … one by one
- Talk to him about your issues … and ask for help
- Ask for the things listed above
- Thank him for doing what you’ve asked … this is faith … his credit is good with us
How are we praying? Some tips:
- In the morning, wake up 10 minutes early and pray while you take a longer shower, or pray while having your cup of coffee or tea … or just get on your knees and plant your face in the rug, pouring out your heart and thoughts to him.
- During the day, on your lunch, sit in your car for 10 minutes, alone, praying.
- Before you go to sleep, pray while you are lying there with the lights off, as the day swirls into oblivion
Fasting: At least one person fasting each day for 40 days!
Look on the calendar and tell me what days you choose. If you can fast 2-3 days at a time, great. If you choose two days, three weeks apart, great. If you choose every Monday, great. Between all of us, all 40 days can be covered with fasting.
- Read Isaiah 58:5-9; Matthew 17:14-21 This gives us a bit on fasting … mainly that it breaks spiritual strongholds (yokes) and it weakens us so God can work through us without us resisting him. God’s strength comes upon us when we are weak.
How are we fasting? A few ideas:
- For the day you are fasting, choose a meal that you love the most, and skip it.
- Eat only veggies … no caffeine, no sweets, no meats, no alcohol (This is often called a Daniel fast, see Daniel 10 for details and a story on how fasting works in the spiritual realm)
- No food, only water. If you do this, don’t eat a heavy meal the day before or after. It helps the transition. Soups and salads are good for this.
This church is not built on skills, ability or money; Amway, Wal-Mart or any other corporation can build organizations like that. This church, is built on Jesus and the word of God. It will be rooted and grounded in prayer and fasting, and should regularly experience the power and demonstration of the Spirit of our God. Only through him can we really have wholeness.
I’m thanking you in advance you for your sacrifice these next 40 days … but you will be the ones to reap the benefits from your own sacrifice. You don’t know what you are capable of yet. And by God’s grace and urging, you will learn to stand in a strength and power that you have never even experienced. You will become God’s mighty hands on this earth, doing his work. You will witness firsthand his provision in your families. You will see him heal areas in your lives that only he can touch.
If you are interested in some reading material about prayer and fasting … I’ve got a few books with lots of stories that will boost your faith. Let me know, and you are more than welcome to borrow them.
This is for your family, our church, and our city. Don’t be shy in engaging yourself.
During the next 40 days, feel free to make comments of your journey here. Bless others with your stories of answered prayers and struggles.
