Good morning Everyone,
The last few weeks have been an amazing time of Father God loving on His church with His presence, power, joy, deliverance and fun. Both in the local church and with our friends in others, His hand has been with us - at leadership conferences, during Sunday services and Schools of Healing! I have to say that sitting under the ministry of Randy Clark, Bill Johnson and Leif Hetland at the Southampton School of Healing has been an incredible life-changing highlight. Their heart of humility, father-heartedness and unswerving pursuit of the greater measures of the kingdom of God through the church and into the world were both encouraging and inspiring!
I have noticed for the last few months that the Father has been releasing two major kingdom realities again - Freedom and Joy! It is for freedom sake that He has set us free - free from illegitimate identities, free from crippling legalistic obligation, free from the influences of the enemy. Free to be, to live, to laugh!! Oh, and joy - His righteousness on us, His peace surrounding us and His joy exploding in us as a result ... this is the kingdom in the Holy Spirit. May the water levels rise in all of us as we see Him, know who we are in Him, and delight in our apportioned inheritance from Him. He is so good!!
I want to leave you with two quotes from a Roman Catholic church leader, Ralph Martin, in his book The Catholic Church at the End of an Age : What the Spirit is Saying. Randy Clark pointed these out last week ...
"When Jesus is proclaimed clearly and confidently, in the power of the Holy Spirit, many more people come to faith, and there is much more growth to the Church than when He is not."
"The church is a bride, and she shows to the world that her spouse is alive by living by His power and receiving life from Him. There is a danger in our day that the church will look more like a widow, alone and without resources except those possessed by any human organization. If we yield to what the Lord has poured out upon us - His Spirit - the world will know that the church is truly the spouse of a living Lord."
The Gospel, central and, powerfully proclaimed; and the Holy Spirit, relied upon and given room to be God in our midst! May these two profound statements disturb us until heaven's desire and directive bulges within us until breakthrough!
Let's live, not by the legal document of marriage but, rather, the relational delight of being the Bride of Christ!
Mountains of love and blessing,
Ryan
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Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Real God through Real People
'The Presence of God in the church will put an end to infidelity. Men will not doubt His Word when they feel His Spirit. For a thousand reasons we need that Jehovah should come into the camp, as aforetime He visited and delivered His people from bondage in Egypt.' - C. H. Spurgeon's dying appeal!
Arthur T. Pierson said : 'The most alarming peril of today is naturalism - the denial of all direct agency and control. Science is united with unbelief, wickedness and worldliness, skepticism and materialism, to rule a personal God out of the universe. The drift toward materialism and naturalism demands the supernatural as it's only corrective.' (Although we are in the age of post-modern thought, materialism, skepticism and naturalism continue to abound in greater measures and this statement is all the more relevant!)
'If anti-Christ is about to make his mightiest and most malignant demonstration, ought not the church confront him with mighty displays of the Spirit's saving power?' - A.J. Gordon
Frank Bartleman, a key figure during the Azusa Street Revival, said : 'Oh church of Christ, awake! Be baptised with power. Then fly to rescue others.'
These are but a few comments from mighty proponents of revival from recent church history. If we were to consider the lives and statements of the many others, including the contemporaries of the above mentioned men, we will see an altogether startling thread ... More of God's Presence and Power in the church and through the church!!
I am convinced that the building of bridges of engagement with a world that hardly thinks twice of Christianity, in the same way that our Lord Jesus exampled incarnational living, is more than essential. Our 'form', how we communicate, how we present ourselves. It is pivitol for the modern church. However, the crux of all things is 'what are we building bridges towards?' Are we so willing to buy into a form of godliness yet deny its power? Are we so ready to offer much from the gospel yet not carry true gospel-power punch? Do we declare the power of deliverance in redemption, the joy and freedom of grace, yet fail to preach a gospel of the kingdom that heaven is willing to authenticate with real power and life? Like 'religion', do we offer much but fail to deliver?
There seems to be a canyon between the evidence of scripture and the experience of many of our lives, but this cannot remain so - this is not Father's intention for His people. Scripture tells us so, and Jesus shows us the same in being our example! I am realising that, as I read of the lives of revivalists present and past, they tend to be helpless romantics - star struck idealists heaven bent on God's real. If that is what is needed, do we have an option? May we be 'helpless romantics' never resting until we have more of God in us and through us. Let us not forget that God's real is our real, not what we simply call the 'ideal'!
If these mighty men and women of reformation and revival had an over-riding heartcry ... 'More of you God in Your Presence and Power!' ... may we do the same! It is the answer for the world alone. The Person, Presence and Power of the Gospel alone is the answer!! Let us preach Him, pursue Him and present Him, as star struck romantics and be willing to lean into Christ and His Gospel until we see the 'tipping point'! We are seeing some of the spilling already. Let's not give in, or up, family of faith! Let's keep going for it, believing for Him, and stepping out to a place where only He can come through.
People have said there are two options, sink or swim! Swimming is good, but there is a third, more Jesus-like option - walk on water!! That's really our only option - the option that'll shake this world with the glorious Gospel! Yikes, it is an adventure serving the Living God who is Real; it's terrifying and exciting all at once! We got to love it ... the Real God through very normal, everyday, real people like you and me!
Let's go huge for Him and, most importantly with Him.
Ryan
Arthur T. Pierson said : 'The most alarming peril of today is naturalism - the denial of all direct agency and control. Science is united with unbelief, wickedness and worldliness, skepticism and materialism, to rule a personal God out of the universe. The drift toward materialism and naturalism demands the supernatural as it's only corrective.' (Although we are in the age of post-modern thought, materialism, skepticism and naturalism continue to abound in greater measures and this statement is all the more relevant!)
'If anti-Christ is about to make his mightiest and most malignant demonstration, ought not the church confront him with mighty displays of the Spirit's saving power?' - A.J. Gordon
Frank Bartleman, a key figure during the Azusa Street Revival, said : 'Oh church of Christ, awake! Be baptised with power. Then fly to rescue others.'
These are but a few comments from mighty proponents of revival from recent church history. If we were to consider the lives and statements of the many others, including the contemporaries of the above mentioned men, we will see an altogether startling thread ... More of God's Presence and Power in the church and through the church!!
I am convinced that the building of bridges of engagement with a world that hardly thinks twice of Christianity, in the same way that our Lord Jesus exampled incarnational living, is more than essential. Our 'form', how we communicate, how we present ourselves. It is pivitol for the modern church. However, the crux of all things is 'what are we building bridges towards?' Are we so willing to buy into a form of godliness yet deny its power? Are we so ready to offer much from the gospel yet not carry true gospel-power punch? Do we declare the power of deliverance in redemption, the joy and freedom of grace, yet fail to preach a gospel of the kingdom that heaven is willing to authenticate with real power and life? Like 'religion', do we offer much but fail to deliver?
There seems to be a canyon between the evidence of scripture and the experience of many of our lives, but this cannot remain so - this is not Father's intention for His people. Scripture tells us so, and Jesus shows us the same in being our example! I am realising that, as I read of the lives of revivalists present and past, they tend to be helpless romantics - star struck idealists heaven bent on God's real. If that is what is needed, do we have an option? May we be 'helpless romantics' never resting until we have more of God in us and through us. Let us not forget that God's real is our real, not what we simply call the 'ideal'!
If these mighty men and women of reformation and revival had an over-riding heartcry ... 'More of you God in Your Presence and Power!' ... may we do the same! It is the answer for the world alone. The Person, Presence and Power of the Gospel alone is the answer!! Let us preach Him, pursue Him and present Him, as star struck romantics and be willing to lean into Christ and His Gospel until we see the 'tipping point'! We are seeing some of the spilling already. Let's not give in, or up, family of faith! Let's keep going for it, believing for Him, and stepping out to a place where only He can come through.
People have said there are two options, sink or swim! Swimming is good, but there is a third, more Jesus-like option - walk on water!! That's really our only option - the option that'll shake this world with the glorious Gospel! Yikes, it is an adventure serving the Living God who is Real; it's terrifying and exciting all at once! We got to love it ... the Real God through very normal, everyday, real people like you and me!
Let's go huge for Him and, most importantly with Him.
Ryan
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