Open Heavens

To get people to see Jesus as he really is, that is the challenge of the church today.  Many of the messages the Lord has been giving me are for the greater body of Christ.  They are prophetic in nature.  In Charismatic circles, the prophetic is seen as people with a gift to see into the future of an individual, church, region or nation.  While I totally believe that the Lord does move that way, I don’t believe that is the core of prophetic preaching.  I believe with all of my heart that prophetic preaching puts the focus on Jesus Christ above all else, in other words, the result is returning to the heart of God and His purposes.  Recently, I ministered on “open heavens”.  The biblical reality of the age we live in is simple, we live in an open heavens atmosphere!  What does that mean?  It means we are living in the days of the Holy Spirit on the earth.  Jesus prayed to the Father to send the Holy Spirit to earth, and the Holy Spirit is being poured out upon the earth.  This is the most unique period of history in all of mankind.  After Christ ascended, He gave gifts to men.  The heavens were opened.  We are living in the times of the harvest.  The heavens never closed.

I truly believe many of the prophetic voices today have a heart to see people on fire for God.  I believe they want what God wants, to see people exalting Jesus in life.  My heart is for the body of Christ to run out of excuses for being powerless, and return to the mighty filling of the Holy Spirit!  While I don’t enjoy conflict in my natural man, the Holy Spirit inside of me compels me to confront strongholds in the hearts of His people that block the true life of God from flowing.

One of the major excuses I have seen in the lives of believers that contend for the greater outpouring is this open/closed heavens idea.  It is actually preached as though it was absolute truth.   I hear prophecies from influential ministries declaring that the heavens were previously closed and now are open over certain areas.  They aren’t talking about before Christ, they are talking about the recent history.

Then we try to figure out why the Holy Spirit isn’t moving, and instead of getting a fresh baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire, they go through all these routines.  I will spare you the embarrasment of details, but it really is sad.

Salvation is a total gift from God.  The Holy Spirit is a total gift from God.  The move of God’s Spirit is available today, in any part of planet earth.  There is no such thing as a closed heaven.  God is looking for hungry and thirsty people to draw near to Him and be set ablaze for Jesus.

We make it as though God needs to do something for revival to break out.  God wants to move, but only on what He did already!  Jesus said, “it is finished”.  The only unfinished business we have is to believe God and move with Him!

Revival is not withheld because we have some principality overpowering the Holy Spirit of God from doing what He wants!  Can you see how ridiculous that is?  Revival is withheld because we aren’t hungry for God.  We are satisfied.  We don’t want the reproach of the gospel, we get religious and allow our flesh to dominate us.  We get stuck in the mindset of the world and don’t live by faith.

Please understand, I do believe that great men and women of God can carry revival in their lives and break open an atmosphere because they walk in the power of the Holy Spirit.  What they should preach is that this is available to anyone who will yield to the Spirit of God.

It doesn’t matter how sinful an area is, how dark.  If you walk with Jesus and are empowered by His Spirit, you are a living revival!  We need our churches to live in this reality in order to shake our world.  We cannot live waiting for God to do something!

John G Lake understood this.  He knew wherever he went, God was going to move.  God will pour out His Spirit on all flesh.  Jesus told us to go throughout the whole earth.  That means anywhere on earth, you can see God move if you are a believer!

If we can get this, we can move into the greatest harvest of souls the world has ever seen.  The Holy Spirit is still the missing link in the body of Christ.  We have to walk in His power!  The more we learn to yield to the Spirit of God, the greater flow we will have in our lives.

Let’s guard our hearts from cheapening what Jesus gave us.

Open Heaven

It’s time to align with the Kingdom!

2008

A new year is upon us.  We have these points throughout the calendar year to reflect on different things in life.  I have several reset points throughout the year.  My birthday is one of those reflection points in April, then in September I have another reflection point.  Then we Christmas and the new year.  My reflection points are pretty well spread out, that’s cool!  I hope you are able to take enough time from your normal activities and get with the Lord this month.  We are instructed to make the most of our time, because the “days are evil”.  We have a stewardship from God, it is called life.  Everything we are and have belong to Him, and we will give an account.  Jesus even went so far as to say we will give an account for every word uttered from our lips!  If Jesus is catching every word, He is certainly taking an account of every activity we engage in.  Are we being faithful with what He has entrusted to us?  As a Christian, you do not live for yourself, you live for Jesus and His kingdom.  It shouldn’t be a scary thought, but it should certainly cause you to have a sober assessment of your world.  What were the goals you set and prayers you prayed about 2008?  Did you pray that you could be more effective and active in being a witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ?  Did you pray for wisdom on how to maximize your time and finances?  Did you pray for strength to overcome your weaknesses?  Did you pray for church leadership?  Did you ask the Lord for an ear to hear what He is saying to you?

Those are just a few kingdom thoughts I thought  worth considering.  With the desires you have for 2008, please consider your motivations.  God wants to increase and bless you abundantly.  He also wants your heart to draw close to His.  I believe as Christians we are supposed to have an impact on our world.  Let’s make an impact for Jesus this year!

Merry Christmas!

It is simply amazing to think about what Christmas really is.  God putting Himself into sinful humanity in order to redeem us from our own sinful lives.  God’s love is simply astonishing.  I hope with all the things you do this Christmas, you will take the time to think about how much God loves you.  God loves us with a love that is like no other!  Agape!  God’s kind of love is truly in a class by itself.  I pray that you will begin to fully grasp the immensity of God’s love for you.  It really makes your life as a Christian simple and freeing to know that you have a love affair with the Father.  May His love reach all of your hurts and bring healing to you this season.

A year of promise!

2008 is upon us already! How did we get here so fast? How did you live 2007? Did you grow in the knowledge of God? Was your faith strengthened? What did you accomplish? We know that the scripture says that without faith it is impossible to please God. Let’s think about that for a moment. What does that really mean? Let’s say we met for lunch. During that meal, we were talking and you brought up the fact that you needed a new sofa. I felt inclined to purchase one and told you that I would do so. We would meet the next day at the store and proceed. The next day, I never hear from you, despite my attempts to contact you on my end. When you finally contact me a few days later I ask why you didn’t meet me. The reason was that you didn’t think I really meant what I said. You didn’t believe me, when I said as a matter of fact that I would purchase a new sofa for you. If you saw this scenario play out in real life you would have to think those two people didn’t have a very good relationship. But do you realize how many believers treat God this way? We don’t believe His very words to us, and we literally refuse to put our lives into His care! We even pray, God please help me with my bills, please help me in this relationship, please come through this sickness. After we pray, we don’t even consider what He has already said concerning these things! Consequently we go around talking about how we aren’t sure if this or that is going to happen, even though we prayed, and even are aware that God has revealed His will concerning many of the things we petition Him for.

Let me make a statement here. God is not moved by need. God is moved by faith. I know many people have an automatic resistance to this statement, but it is only evidence that if you walked into the deepest part of their understanding of faith, you might not even get your ankles wet! In other words, they simply have not prayed, studied or meditated on what faith is, and sided with lofty high minded faithless religious folk who would rather you be impressed with their arguments and words than God’s words. Do you realize what faith really is? It is simply believing what God says! Think about it for a moment. The entire evangelical world has no problem taking God at His word when they quote John 3:16. It is practically unanimous. But if you quote Mark chapter 16:15 you will get an entirely different response from the same throng of Christians. Why? Somewhere along the way they allowed earthly wisdom to diffuse the power of God’s word in many areas where in fact God is quite direct. The scripture says in James that earthly wisdom is demonic. It is not rooted in the knowledge of God, but in the knowledge of good and evil, the adamic nature.

We can take the doctrine of cessation for example, it is a very well thought out, highly intellectual viewpoint cloaked in sincerity and reason. The “charisma” no longer function in Christ’s body. If you read the Bible, you will have to be extremely creative and put more faith in the explanation than the actual clear teachings, and examples given in scripture. What has happened? It really is as simple as believing the reason of men above God’s word.

God longs for us to believe Him, because He is good! Believing God is unconventional anymore isn’t it! Even among believers! If you take God at His word, it will set you on a course of uncommon blessing in life! God isn’t afraid to be good to us! But without faith it is impossible to please Him. Why, because you are saying to Him, I don’t believe you! When you tell me that you will meet all my needs according to your resources, I don’t believe you! So I go out and live in fear and end up mortgaging my future with bad financial decisions. You tell me you give me peace, not circumstantial peace as the world gives, but I don’t believe you! So I am going to go medicate myself to I can feel better. You tell me that as a believer I am fitted and joined to your body, the church. I don’t like that so I am just going to have my private little Jesus party by myself.

You tell me to love my enemies, but I don’t believe your word, so I am just going to become bitter, angry and suspicious of everything and everyone. You tell me to honor my father and mother, but they did terrible things to me so I choose not to believe and obey your word, and will stain my heart with unforgiveness and infect others with my lack of respect for authority.

Most problems believers have in America today stem from the fact that they lack the humility to believe God’s word for their lives. Many times they even have no problem quoting scripture for someone else’s problems, but will not apply the answer for their life. To walk in faith takes humility. Humility is a yielded heart and life to the word of God. It is taking God at His word and acting on it in your life. I know this can be muddied easily by the cunning of men and their craftiness in using the authority of God’s word to manipulate behavior. But if you look at the examples I gave, you will see where I am getting at. God wants to restore our lives. He came to give us life eternal! When you begin to walk in faith toward God, He will begin to work on your behalf! God is not afraid to bless you! He is not afraid to love you! If you will yield your whole heart to Him, He will satisfy your life. You will run to God first, and He will be your help! Do you believe it? Let’s extract everything that takes the place of what God says out of our lives and truly make Jesus Lord of all!

Radio: Coming soon!

Good news! God has blessed us with an opportunity to go on radio! We will be partnering with on the AM band with KKPZ 1330 AM. We are going to be airing a 15 minute daily program. We will be sharing the vision God has put in our hearts and imparting through the word of God and by the power of His Spirit.  It will be a dynamic program with testimonies and news of God moving locally and globally. God is working mightily in our midst and it is a thrill to be able to connect with such a vast audience. Pray with us and agree for favor and blessing all over this ministry outreach. We have also set up a Paypal account that can receive donations for the radio ministry. If you would like to invest into Current, this is a wonderful opportunity to do so. You can give as easily as sending a check simply to “CURRENT” or Current church. Our address is 2407 SE 49th St, Portland Oregon 97206. You can also send a Paypal donation to mail@portlandcurrent.com All donations will be logged and are tax deductible.

The program if you would like to listen in will be on Monday through Friday at 9:45 AM. We are also looking to post the audio either on this blog or possibly on our website homepage. Thanks!

A view from above

My heart aches for the people of God. The passion of my life steers me right into a divine conflict. My passion is for Jesus. Jesus the King of the universe. Jesus the prince of peace, the judge of all mankind. Jesus, the lover of people. Jesus the one who draws us into intimacy with the Father. Why is the majority of the church that is comprised of people who would assent to all the right things, display such a mediocre passion for Jesus? Passion, a requirement for life, is spent on recreation and entertainment and not on divine purpose. It is a fantastic blessing to enjoy the earth and the things God has created for us. It is a tragedy that we would give our best to anything other than the Kingdom of God. This tragedy is commonplace and I will not participate. I will not be numbered with those who put their treasure in what passes away. We need a view from above. The scripture says that we are seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. How did we get up there if we are still down here? We are seated. God desires to give us a particular vantage point that gives us an advantage, heavenly vision! I have heard it preached so many times that we don’t want to be so heavenly minded that we are no earthly good. That is actually a misnomer, because if you truly see from God’s vantage point, you will be unstoppable. What did those preachers mean? Really, they were just addressing flakes. People who won’t engage in life. It is impossible to be sidelined if you have a heavenly vision. If you don’t understand this language, I strongly recommend praying, reading scriptures and listening for the Holy Spirit to lead you into the truth. The spirit of God is passionate to give you a perception that cannot be stolen, because it is not from this world. He wants to give you a view from above.