For You, For the One

In remembrance

   Some times I catch myself… thinking, agreeing with and even full on embracing things that have no attachment to who I really am. I take a wander down paths that ultimately lead to darkness (the absence of light [truth, revelation et al]). It’s a very interesting thing to recognise that; to see that I can, or rather I have the ability, to stray from the reality that Christ died for me to live in. What reality is that? The reality of complete peace, joy, bliss, satisfaction, perfection and union with Him. Having been “blessed with every spiritual blessing… and seated in heavenly places in Christ”(Eph 1:3, 2:6), there is more than enough for me to fully enjoy a life overwhelmed with the goodness of God. The Christian life is not about waiting and hoping and believing for things to be attained by our own human efforts. Self righteousness masked by false humility is a dangerous drink to take down. Christ died that we “may have life, and have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). HE died that we may HAVE… simple truth. 

                                                                                                                            Selah 

   ”So why do I worry? Why do I freak out?” Those lyrics by Jon Foreman strike true tonight. I have been catching myself worrying and freaking out about things as if my God doesn’t see them. Worse than that I sometimes feel as if my compassion is greater than His? Thinking about that notion is ridiculous in and of itself. Ridiculous, but a real feeling still. I have to remember that it’s okay to feel that way; the most important thing is my response. It’s crazy that God would give me the ability to choose how I can respond to life, to Him and not be afraid of the results. I am blown away by the caliber of His love for me. He did everything; Jesus did everything when He died and was resurrected. I was given complete access and restoration to my glorified state, condition and status as a son of the Kingdom and co-heir with Christ. And yet, with all of that being done, my response to the truth of it can dictate how much I experience and how much it manifests in my life. The truth doesn’t change; the presents are still there for me to open, I just still need to open them.

Remembrance Sunday. It’s an incredible thing to do to celebrate what Jesus did on the Cross and understand that death has lost it’s sting. Read Romans 6 and just revelate on that, I promise it’ll bring life to your spirit. Remembrance - the action of remembering (to bring to one’s mind an awareness of). For centuries religion has plagued the church with the lie that you must perform x,y and z in order to see truth manifest in your life. I want to propose to you that the only thing you need to do to see His truth manifest in your life is remember that Jesus has already done everything! Jesus did absolutely everything needed for us to be alive in the original destiny designed for us. I’ve come to understand that communion isn’t a religious act of reminding yourself how sinful you are and Christ’s mercy is only there to tolerate you. NO! Communion is an act of remembering that Jesus died as our sin and made us alive to God (Romans 6:11). It’s remembering that He did everything for us and celebrating it!

The principle of awareness is an incredible lesson for me right now. I’m realising that life is about celebrating what He has done and learning to continually remember it! Living with the remembrance (the awareness of) who I am in God. There’s a connection with this and the verse that speaks of praying continuously without ceasing. When you are continuously aware of something, it’s truth is all the more prevalent in your life. The power of the truth isn’t dependent on your awareness; Christ died for you before you were even aware you needed Him. It comes back to that ridiculous gift of free will; God wants me to fully choose to experience and be aware of His goodness. He will never force it upon me. So, the choice is mine, and any time I begin to become aware of something else other than the truth of God I am allowing God-space to be taken up by a lesser (false) reality.

I want to live in remembrance of God and Christs finished works. 

End of :)

South Africa 2012: ease, awareness, bliss

   Where to start. Well I guess to preface, for those of you that don’t know, I went to South Africa for my third missions trip as a student of Bethel’s ministry school. It was an eighteen day trip filled with fast-paced schedules, diverse ministry opportunities, extravagant miracles and incredible scenery. All around it was my favourite missions trip of the three. I must say that Africa, being the continent of my birth, was an extremely exciting place to be since I could finally put personal pictures to the fact. I feel like something was added to me just by being there.

   But onto details. The goal/desire/aim of this trip was to simply preach the Good News of the Gospel and see the Spirit of God testify of its truth wherever we went. We went with the expectation to see God do all the work! It was so easy! For the first half of the trip we were ministering at a church called Patria, which I have undoubtedly fallen in love with. We spent a total of eight days with them and had a service every night. I preached the first evening on the faithfulness of God! Words of knowledge were released and we saw over fifty people get healed from (sport, disease and illness related) pain in their bodies. We released prophetic words over as many people as we could and began to see the incredible shift in their paradigms about what God’s goodness can, does and always looks like. Our childlike fun whilst taking risks and stepping out in faith helped to de-mystify healing, hearing Papa God’s voice and understanding that the same Christ that lives in us also lives in them. We were simply adding our fire to theirs. One of the most impacting testimonies for me was seeing this church fully embrace the truth of the Gospel; that it wasn’t just about us being there for a week, seeing some crazy miracles, leaving and everything “going back to normal”. They fully understood that they carry the same anointing we do, because they have the same Christ! That’s good news! 

   Everything about this trip was so easy. I have never given out so many prophetic words that were 100% accurate as well as being ridiculously specific. I have never prayed for so many people with diverse and unique pains/illnesses and see them instantly healed. There are countless testimonies that I would like to share with you all. Alas, we haven’t the time. The ones I share are those that had an incredible impact on me.
   I, along with some of my team prayed for three men in a hospital suffering from tuberculosis who had intense pain in their chests and sinuses. After prayer each one of them felt no more pain! We couldn’t test there and then that the TB was healed, but I’m confident of a good God. Afterwards we asked them if they knew who took their pain away, if they wanted to feel God’s presence and accept Christ. They all said yes!!! They felt his presence like a warm liquid and breeze blow over them for the first time ever! One of them, Jeremiah, actually told us that his eyesight (he suffered from severe short-sightedness) was completely healed as well! And we didn’t even pray for that! God did it anyway!!! Hahaha!!! It was an awesome day to say the least. There is nothing better than seeing someone with pain get healed, encounter the presence of God and accept Christ. What an incredible testimony! 

    Another testimony that really impacted me was with Mark and his daughter. Mark had been in a bus accident that damaged his C3, C4 and T7 vertebrae to the point where he couldn’t move his neck at all. Since december last year he’d been wearing a neck-brace. This resulted in him losing his job, next to all of his families possessions, and developing depression and suicidal thoughts. The day before I met him, he had re-dedicated his life to Christ (at one of our meetings!) and said he was free from depression et al, however the pain was still there. So, I prayed for him and we saw all the pain leave!!! He had 80-90% of his mobility restored there and then! After speaking to him a little more I came to discover that he walked 26 miles round trip to come to our meetings and every day he would bring his daughter with him. He would sing and worship with her the entire time and always encourage her that regardless of how things look, God will always provide. As I spoke with him my heart was melting at how incredible he was as a father. It wrecked me to see him literally with nothing, but still so faithful and encouraging. His daughter was beaming the entire time we talked.

   I told Mark I wanted to see him and his family at the service that night so I could pray for him and see breakthrough come in his finances. I knew God wanted to restore everything he lost from the accident and just release His goodness over them all. During ministry at the end of the service, and after I had prayed for him and his family, Mark told me that someone asked him to do a small job for him… literally a 10 minute effort… but they paid him two thousand rand! That’s $254! Oh, and by the way he had 100% mobility in his neck! Hahaha! I was so, so, so wrecked at the love and provision of God in Mark’s life, who is forever changed.

   The first half of the trip for me was marked by ease. It was so easy to love on the people we met, the church we invested our hearts into and the sick and needy that were in need of a hug from Papa God. Sickness, disease, lies and false-identity were all completely eradicated by the truth of the Gospel and we didn’t even do anything! Jesus did it all whilst we came along for the ride. I know, for me, that this trip completely solidified the truth that Christ has done it all and I simply get to celebrate His finished works as they manifest in my life! Obedience and celebration are synonymous! :)

   The second half of the trip for me, was all about awareness. Being fully aware that Jesus is everywhere, in everything and fully present in my life. Psalms 139 became so alive to me that I just went crazy and only expected good news in everything I did. We spent a day in one of the local townships of Stilfontein (I may have butchered that spelling, apologies) near Johannesburg. We played football, rugby and loved on the kids after setting up the tent our meeting would be in that night. One of the most incredible things about the African people is their energy and life. They are incredible worshippers, beyond anything that I’ve ever experienced and the love they have literally brought life to my bones. We preached the same Good News we preach everywhere, sang songs and released prophetic words. Over a hundred people committed their lives to Christ that night and there were multiple healings. 

   One personal testimony from that night was with a young man. He walked up to me and all he could say was that he was in pain. I asked him where it was and how he got the pain; all I got was hand signals to his chest and head. Eventually, one of his friends came up to me and explained that a few days ago in school he was possessed; by what they didn’t know but they knew that was the source of the pain. I had never dealt with something like this before… but then I remembered that I wasn’t going to anyway, Jesus dealt with this thing on the Cross! Ha! With that I declared the blood of Jesus over him and that no spirit was more powerful than the Spirit of Christ. The pain in his body left, but I got a word of knowledge that he had an intense pressure on his head, like someone was crushing it. He acknowledge this was true and we prayed again. The pressure left and he was completely healed!! God then began to show me that this young man sees demons when he’s at school - both in specific places but also on people. I explained to him that Jesus has given him authority over these things and he can tell them to go away. The guy was ridiculously blessed and left with a completely different countenance. Praise God!
 

   The picture to my right was taken at SpiritWord Ministries, an incredible church where we spent the last few days of ministry. Here we attended a healing meeting where over four thousand came for prayer. We had the honour of laying hands of every single one of them and seeing some of the craziest miracles I’ve seen in my life. We saw someone who was completely deaf healed so they could hear a voice over fifteen feet away; there was a gentleman who was completely blind that could now see objects clear enough to describe what was happening in the room and we also saw five people get out of wheelchairs and walk for the first time in years, some of them the first time ever. This was so much fun. What God showed me during this healing meeting was the standard at which my life should consistently be at. Healing meetings like this aren’t concerts I attend for a day and then leave reminiscing about; they are demonstrations of the power of God that lives inside of me and I am allowed to expect it to manifest as such every single day!

Having an increased awareness that Jesus is completely present in me and I in Him was the most powerful experience of part two of the trip. I love worshipping Him and realising that the Christian life isn’t about working towards getting something, rather it’s about accepting everything that Christ died to give to you as a free gift. That revelation made lovin people and seeing them completely changed so. much. fun. to experience. Because His love, also, though it cost so much is given to you as a free gift. The ecstasy of loving God. The joy of celebrating His presence. The power of the name of Jesus; the personhood of Christ and His finished works. All of it just screams bliss! I have so much fruit from this trip that just wrecks me, because it comes out of being attached to the Vine, simply abiding (John 15). Abiding is bliss, not performance or striving. A branch doesn’t do anything to produce fruit other than staying connected to the Vine. I have learnt and experienced through the ease and awareness of the Gospel that living with Christ is sheer, unadulterated and ecstatic bliss. 

This missions trip was an incredible experience. If you have any questions about the trip or anything that I have said in this blog, please just ask. There is so much more I would like to share with you all and I know you’d be encouraged as I was. Thanks for reading guys…

:)