Harvest Cry, night 2

Wow, Johannes' teaching challenged me this morning. When he speaks of the raw courage that it takes to believe in the miraculous, it stirs something deep inside me. I want to live that life, to be that guy. He talks about becoming a man of such faith that he can actually walk on water, and be 'caught up' like Philip was when he witnessed to the Ethiopian Eunuch.

He also talked about how important it is not to be a mocker, and how our jokes cover our unbelief. I believe that has been me a whole lot over the years.

Tonight, our building was once again full. Johannes preached a powerful word, and when he gave the altar call, there must have been more than 50 people surged to the front. I don't think I will ever get tired of watching what happens when somebody encounters Jesus and His forgiveness. The most wonderful tears in the world have to be tears of repentance, and the joy of becoming a new person inside. Then people got healed, Leah got baptized in The Holy Spirit, and so many stayed for an extra hour or more just to worship.

I have the best job in the world.

Harvest Cry begins!

Harvest Cry started tonight (fonally after planning for months!). Our building was packed with over 500 people. The altar services was mobbed with dozens of glorious salvations. It just feel so good to watch God completely change lives, give hope, forgive sins, and help people get the life change they wished for but could not get. I don't think I'll ever get tired of seeing it happen.

There was a young lady for example, that must have been about the age I was when I met Jesus for the first time- 11 years old. I watched her begin to pray. And then the water works started. She wept before God for awhile. A little while later the sun really came out and she worshipped for an hour, just reveling in her new salvation.

I watched my staff hug each other, as the months and months of hard work that they put in, paid off. Many of them have practically been living at the church for days, watching over every little detail, praying that it would all count for some people to find Jesus. Many of them gave their last dimes, their last energy, and everything else they had, hoping that precious people would find Jesus through our work.

I LOVE this life!

just a little unbelief in my mirror

Sitting in a meeting just now, David read a scripture from Saint Paul: " he who began a good work in you, will bring it to completion".

I hardly ever spent time thinking about what it would mean for me to have completed the work God called me to do in Adam's County, in the United States, in the World. What would that look like?

Would it look like 50% church attendance again? Or 75%? Certainly the same Paul, when he said at the end of his life "I have finished the work", didn't see those numbers. So what did he mean? That he had established some churches in each province? What?

So far my little brain has not found an answer to that question that I can be okay with. In fact, I can't even find one that I don't experience unbelief about. I guess so far in my life I saw myself plodding on, doing my best, hoping for a generally good result when I finish (in about 50 years, is what I had in mind by the way- to leave a few years for retirement before Heaven, in case Heaven is not as fun as I am having here... ha ha)

when prophecy hits a brick wall

Sometimes when I preach, I can feel the spiritual resistance in a big way.

Tonight was like that, especially at first. I was feeling led to start the service with a prophecy that I felt the Holy Spirit give me as I prepared the sermon "Something Big", our first installment of the Harvest Cry series. As I prophesied, I felt such resistance in the spirit world. 

I believe that the resistance I felt,  only made each word more important and powerful. It's an honor to be resisted by certain enemies, sort as if they felt my preaching was worth resisting.

I went ahead and preached the service. At the end, two sweet young ladies came up to ma and asked if I would help them know Jesus. We prayed to receive Christ, and while they repeated that powerful prayer and received forgiveness of sins, eternal life, and Jesus as their Lord, big tears rolled down one of their faces.

So here is the prophecy God gave me:  

This summer will literally and completely change our community by helping specific people in it. Because of the work we do in the month of June, suicides will be averted, diseases reversed, and eternal life secured for many friends and neighbors. Haters will be turned into lovers. Useless, helpless drug users will be turned into productive citizens, and their drug dealers will search for jobs. Divorce bound marriages will be healed. Fathers will be restored to their children. Jobs will be created as users become contributors, and addicted personalities are set free. Angry, out-of-control men will find the ability to love as they allow love into their own hearts. This will change everything!

my heart is full

In an hour I leave for our son Evan's graduation!!!! How good is that? Evan is our third child, in case any of you don't know.

This afternoon I participated in Jim "Pappy" Strauss's funeral procession, led by 60 Harley's. Even Julie rode with me in the driving rain! Can't say either of us liked the rain much, though. Pappy was a motorcycle chaplain. I think I met at least 15 people he personally led to Christ through his motorcycle chaplaincy. I hear there are many, many more.

This week I was at Church Planter's Boot camp in Pittsburgh with about 10 of my people (2 teams). We have about 10 or more new churches to be planted in the next year, and boot camp helps so much! They spent a week in prayer, planning, and organizing with the help of a bunch of us Pastors who have already done it. Good stuff. I hope to hold another one here in Ol' Gburg in November. I feel so hopeful for America when I am with these new up-and-coming churches.

This week God gave me so many great connections, ideas, and details for our call in building the Kingdom. My heart is so full.

I am an action oriented person. If it's not moving, I have a hard time sitting still for it. I am hard wired to be about action. But I am slowly learnning something. A`leader must do whatever it takes to keep his heart full of faith and in his main role. My main role are vision and believing the future into existence. I need to invest in a lot of this week's kind of stuff to keep that hot and stay on the track God called me to be on.

Gerry

pure oxygen

Something happens to me in a room full of church planters. I get so pumped up about the future of our nation, that I can hardly keep myself under control.

It is the opposite of what happens when I watch the news, even though I am a news junkie, and watch it a lot!

I am currently spending two days at Church Planter's Boot Camp in Pittsburgh. When I am around church planters, I get a deep and powerful hope for America. There is hope for our future, and hope for our children because of these people. 

This morning we read a lot of the Nehemiah story in our boot camp devotions. This guy had the courage to believe God for a future for his nation, even though they had destroyed themselves through sin, and God himself had seeemed to give up on them. God then used Nehemiah to raise that nation back up.

These church planers are like that. They believe that God will use them to create great cities, restore people into their God-given dreams, and build a furutre for America again.

Lord help us get it done!

It takes courage to ask for help

Steven Sebyala mentioned this scripture last week

⁹ Afterward the disciples asked Jesus privately, “Why couldn’t we cast out that demon?”

Jesus disciples asked him a direct question. They wanted to know why they had failed, and what they should learn. I like their direct attempt to get their issues fixed, and to learn. They asked a humble, straightforward question. They didn't dodge the issues, make excuses, or pretent they knew. They wanted to be critiqued and to learn how they could improve themselves.

Paul said that he looks for leaders who are "wise as serpents, and innocent as doves", whcih seems like something these disciples may have been modeling. They were wise enough to ask for help when they needed it, and ask the simplest questions possible.

I want to be like that

coming this weekend

This weekend we have the privilege of hosting Steven Sebyala of Africa Harvest Mission. 

I met Steven a number of years ago at Ron Johnson's church in Hampton Virginia. I was amazed to hear about the 300 churches he planted in Africa, and about his vision as an evangelist to reach a billion African's for Christ by the year 2045! I am such an amateur leader compared to a modern day apostle like this one.

Pastor Steven will be here for all services this weekend. He will also be teaching at my Catalyst meeting Tuesday at noon will also feature Steven teaching on leadership. I'd love to have you with us if you are interested. Email Lorrie or call the office of you plan to be part of it.

Jason Fitch is ordained!

Last night at Ministries Summit, I got to lay hands on Jason Fitch as he was ordained to the ministry.

So many things raced through my brain.

Like when we fasted and prayed for his salvation. And how serious he was when he gave his heart to Jesus.  He never seemed to look back, or give God less than his whole self. For example, when  I talked to him about getting trained for the ministry, he wanted a great education, not a get-by solution.

I love that I never have to wonder if he is sugar-coating the truth. Or wonder if he will keep his word. Or persuade him to grow by reading, learning, or getting counsel. I am never discouraged about what he is now, because I know he is on his way to becomin so much more.

I love that I never had to wonder if his marriage would make it, or if he would quit when the going got tough. I never wondered if he would take care of his health, physical or spiritual.

As I prayed over him last night, I got a vision of him standing in Tulsa. (He was bigger than life, as if he was standing on a giant map of the United States). He arms were stretched wide, and the nation was pressing in to come to him and receive from the Spirit of God upon Him. People who could not get close enough, were straining to hear whatever he said, and were doing what he suggested they do. His outstretched arms were like a funnel, drawing people into eternal life. Millions were pressing in. I felt such God-power coming from him and from Sara.

I feel deeply privileged to have been part of this "making-of-a-man-of-God". 

God showed me a lot more, which I hope to write in future blogs

Learning how to monitor change

This week at Freedom Valley we take an important step on our jouney to See Change As Opportunity.

The step? We are learning what Jesus taught about how to Monitor Change!

Jesus taught his disciples about how to watch change as it happens and set themselves to ride the wave instead of being crushed by it. Here are some of his insights:

Get Shock Absorbers.

Jesus made it very clear that even good change (like believing in Him) should not cause us to expect like to be smooth. In fact, he said he did NOT come to bring peace but a sword. We get confused when we think "life should be less hard", or that "if we do the right things, people should agree with us." 

Life is just not like that, and it is more effective to prepare for tough times than to believe times should not be tough.

Grow a discerner

Learning to discern where you are at in life is not much harder than discerning the weather, yet most of us trudge through season after season without discerning what really matters, where we are heading, or what to do to prepare for the future. Jesus said: "you know how to discern the weather. Know how to discern the times"

Know the law of the trail.

If you are on a path in life, you WILL end up where the path leads you, right? Paths lead to certain conclusions, everytime, becasue that is what paths are for. Yet some of us are marching along witout thinking about the outcome of the particular path we are on. Jesus said, for example, that when we are on the way to court, we should think clearly about what the outcomes could be and work hard to make peace before we get to an outcome we don't like.