Month: February 2024

Have you ever read your Bible and did an honest assessment of your self in regards to who you really are in the passage? If we read the book of Proverbs there is an obvious demarcation between the wicked and the righteous, but do we read the attributes of the wicked and say, that’s me and falls on our face in repentance? Or if we hear the words of Jesus say, “You offspring of vipers! How can you speak good things when you are evil (wicked)? For out of the fullness (the overflow, the superabundance) of the heart the mouth speaks. The good man from his inner good treasureflings forth good things, and the evil man out of his inner evil storehouseflings forth evil things” (Matthew 12:34-35 – AMP). How many of us actually listen to what comes out of our mouth more than we remember what comes out of someone else’s mouth?

I was praying for a friend this morning, who is in Israel right now, and the Holy Spirit said to me, “Pray for her to experience a kingdom expression in her heart, so a kingdom expansion can come out of her mouth.” I prayed that for her and I prayed that for me and I prayed that for us as the body of Christ. We need a kingdom expression in our hearts or we will never have a kingdom expansion come out of our mouths. I want to expand the kingdom of God and it expands not by building another church, having another title or by winning the lottery. The kingdom increases or decreases based on what comes out of my mouth, your mouth, our mouth corporately.

The challenge is so clearly identified, “Jesus called the people to Him and said to them, Listen and grasp and comprehend this: It is not what goes into the mouth of a man that makes him unclean and defiled, but what comes out of the mouth; this makes a man unclean and defiles [him]” (Matthew 15:10-11 – AMP). Many are very diligent about what goes in their mouth, but they are not paying attention to what is coming out of their mouth. Friends, the Lord wants a kingdom expression in our hearts, so kingdom expansion can come out of our mouth. Let us examine ourselves so we can be healed and advance the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven.

What you look at is what you see. So simple, yet so profound. We speak from what we see, we see what we look at. I was speaking to a man yesterday who is writing a novel in order to help veterans overcome the darkness they have seen in war. He explained to me how this novel is going to shine light into the dark places of these men’s hearts, who are held captive to hopelessness. Veterans have seen some dark things of the likes they cannot even explain and this man is shining light in the darkness.

My conversation with him made me realize again, how what we see is what we say. When you’re seeing darkness in people’s lives, in the world and in the news, it is easy to speak what you see. But what if we were not called to speak what we see in the world, but what we see in the Word? There is so much to see in the Word, but it must trump what you see in the world. Here is what Isaiah 6 saw and what the seraphim say. “In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called out to another and said, Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory.”

Isaiah could have focused on the death of the king, but he saw the King of kings and spoke about Him. The seraphim when they saw the Lord they said, “The earth is full of His glory!” Not the earth is full of death, darkness, gloom and doom, but full of the glory of God. Friends, we must say what God is saying, what the angels are seeing. The earth is full of glory, even Habakkuk 2:14 agrees “For the earth will be filled With the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, As the waters cover the sea.” Glory is light not darkness; is life not death; is hope not fear. I see the Lord and He is the Light of the world, so I see a future so bright we have got to wear our shades.

Stark contrast; obvious demarcation; distinct difference; when something becomes so clear you cannot deny what you see, these are some of the phrases we use to describe it. I spent 9 hours with a large group of people all day Saturday at The Send in Nashville, TN. It was one worship set after another with a little bit of speaking in between. What I saw and heard was what God is doing in the body of Christ on a level I did not see before the event. There is a generation on the earth right now that is mature beyond their years, not indoctrinated with the theologies of men, but are enamored by the presence and power of God.

Leaders who are working with youth and young adults are preaching the gospel of the kingdom, they are training, equipping and deploying, they are apostolic in their revelation of Jesus Christ, they are prophetic in their words of life and they are pointing these students away from the platform and to the person of Jesus Christ. It was refreshing, exciting and relieving to hear Francis Chan say, “If I read the word of God only and your bored, that is your issue not mine, for the word of God is living and active, sharper than two edged sword and only the word of God can change your life.” Or to hear Martin Smith say, “A depressed anxious generation does not need another ballad, they need a song to dance to.”

The kingdom of God is here, it is not coming, it is here. I saw it, I heard it when I was at The Send. If one generation that has been taught everything is getting darker will not receive the good news of the kingdom on earth as it is in heaven, another one will. We have a group of people on the earth who are preaching the kingdom, not the news. They are calling for a generation to dance not mourn. There is such an obvious two message system in the church and the way to discern which you are listening to, is to look at the fruit of the message. Fear based messages produce anxiety, panic and preppers, while faith, life and light based messages produce confidence, boldness, hope and joy. The kingdom is here and we were born for such a time as this. Did you feel the mountains tremble? Did you hear the singers roar? As the lost began to sing of Jesus Christ our risen Lord.

The sound of silence, some call defeaning others call it delighting.
The sound of silence, creates fear in some and peace in others.
The sound of silence, is a burden to one and a gift to another.
Spending nine hours in worship and the word with a stadium full of people, is an experience that is hard to describe. The Send marked me in a way only The Send could. But then this morning as a I walked the dog in the Sunday morning silence on streets that were empty, it was another marking I could not deny.

The Send was a day full of two sounds, one was the sound of humanity speaking, singing, shouting; the other sound was that of instruments of many kinds playing, hands clapping, and feet moving. Both sounds were symphonic in nature as we worshipped all day and into the night with names we knew and had never heard of; all to the One Name who is worthy of it all. From Martin Smith of Delirious to Cody Carnes and Kari Jobe; Michael W. Smith and Darlene Zschech; Jesus Image and Stephanie Gretzinger; a Brazilian worship team and Circuit Riders. From one leader to the other the song of praise, the cry of holy, holy, holy, rose throughout the day like a river. It was powerful, it was all about the One who sits on the throne, it was about Jesus!

Psalm 19 tells us all of creation declares the glory of God, so even when the sound of humanity is not being heard, the sound of creation is. We may think there is a certain number of people who have never heard the gospel, but that is just not true. Creation communicates Jesus is Lord all the time, everywhere, but we must be silent to hear it. There is a lot of people who may not have heard another human say the name of Jesus, but they have heard creation say it. God does not only use the voice of people to speak the name of Jesus, He uses everything He created to speak His name.

The symphony of sound between creation and humanity reveals the majesty of God. It is no wonder it says, “His voice is like the sound of many rushing waters.” With one voice we declared, Here Am I, Send Me at The Send. It was powerful, it was memorable, it was insightful to hear how God has been changing the body of Christ in ways we cannot know unless we go to a gathering like The Send. Jesus is still the only head of the Church and He is maturing His Bride in ways I did not know until yesterday. We are living in amazing times and we can truly say, we were born for such a time as this.

When I got saved in 1989 in the youth room of Vision of Glory Lutheran Church in Plymouth, MN, I was immediately taught to read my bible and do what it says. I was speaking in tongues within days of giving my life to Jesus. My youth pastor, Grant, discipled us upon arrival into salvation. The high value placed on the word of God for me from the start has stuck with me all these years. One of the main foundations of the Lutheran church is Sola Scriptura, scripture alone. I am so thankful for the foundation I was given in that Charismatic Lutheran Church, all those years ago.

Now 35 years later, I am sitting at my desk in Nashville, TN preparing to attend The Send all day conference in a stadium with 40,000 other people today. The Lord is bringing me back to the beginning this morning, as I remember when I was reading the book of Isaiah, when I first got saved, and literally did everything the Bible said. I read in Isaiah 5 the words, woe to those who serve mixed drinks and it caused me to cancel my application to attend bar tending school. I know that is now what it means in context, but when I was a new believer, if the Bible said, woe to those serving mixed drinks, I was not going to be a bar tender.

Another verse that really got me was Isaiah 6:6-8 “One of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs. He touched my mouth with it and said, “Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away and your sin is forgiven. Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us? Then I said, Here am I. Send me! He said, Go, and tell this people!” I was forgiven, I knew that and I remember saying these exact words, “Here am I. Send Me!” Little did I know it would take me to Seattle, WA, Kansas City, MO, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and now Nashville, TN.

Here I sit, with a desire in my heart after all these years to say it again, “Here am I. Send Me!” As I prepare to go to The Send today, I am remembering when I was 19 years old and said those very words. But it wasn’t just a nice thing to say, it was a cry of my heart to go and tell anyone that would listen about this man Jesus who radically changed my life. Now 35 years later, I am saying it again, Here I am. Send me. I want to go and tell anyone who will listen about this man Jesus and His kingdom that consumes my life. I am praying today is a multigenerational commissioning as when I was sent the first time I did not know what I do now, but the desire to go and preach the gospel of the kingdom is the same. Here I am. Send me!!!!

Good morning friends,

I was in prayer this morning and the song by Matthew West called The God Who Stays started playing in my spirit. The lyrics to the bridge is what it started with and then the chorus rang out. Here is what I was hearing;

My shame can’t separate
My guilt can’t separate
My past can’t separate
I’m Yours forever
My sin can’t separate
My scars can’t separate
My failures can’t separate
I’m Yours forever
No enemy can separate
No power of hell can take away
Your love for me will never change
I’m Yours forever

You’re the God who stays
You’re the one who runs in my direction
When the whole world walks away
You’re the God who stands
With wide open arms
And You tell me nothing I have ever done can separate my heart
From the God who stays

We learned to run because people ran from us. We learned to be alone because people left us alone. We learned to hurt because hurt people didn’t know how much we craved love. We remain distant because we haven’t had people who stayed. We unconciously and usually unintentionally run away from God just like we run away from people. We long for intimacy but we don’t know how to be intimate. We hear the words of God but struggle to believe them not because they are not true but because we have not seen them modeled.

The Lord is softening hearts in a way I have never seen before in my life. He is making room for people in our hearts, our lives, our families, our schedules. There is an energy that comes from really being loved by God and by other people. Intimacy is the craving of humanity. When we don’t know the love of valuable people in our lives we struggle to know the depths of the love of God for us. But models are rising up, showing us what love really looks like, feels like, sounds like and when we experience it we can’t deny it. He is the God who stays and He is bringing people into our life who look and sound like God to us and it is unlocking our hearts in ways our minds can’t comprehend but our hearts are longing for. Lean in there is so much more to see, hear and feel. He is the God who stays.

Has it felt Iike there has been an acceleration of the manifestation of evil in the nations? Satanic rituals are being performed on public stages like Super Bowl Halftime shows, World Economic Forums and in movies that hit our theatres. Blatant disregard for life is on display as men in power use human beings as their test cases for their next bio weapon; weather is weaponized in order to control food supplies; and employment is threatened if you do not submit to the “shot” demands. Much has happened and very quickly. It can be very discouraging and scary.

Do you ever wonder what the acceleration of the manifestation is for? Do you think the Bible has anything to say about what is happening in our day and time? If the Bible is a linear book that starts in Genesis and ends in Revelation then we are headed for a very scary end. However, if the Bible is a cyclical book, we are just passing through another harvest season in which the Lord is separating the wheat and the chaff. People who preach and prophesy the news will never have anything good to say, for the main stream media is a daily dose of bad news that will make you hopeless, but the word of God is good news and builds you inside strong in every season.

Psalm 92 says, “When the wicked sprouted up like grass And all who did iniquity flourished, It was only that they might be destroyed forevermore.” When I read that this morning I saw “why” the acceleration of evil in the nations. God is eradicating wickedness and establishing righteousness. This is really good news. Zechariah 10 was what I read yesterday and it says, “We will pass through the sea of distress And He will strike the waves in the sea, So that all the depths of the Nile will dry up; And the pride of Assyria will be brought down And the scepter of Egypt will depart.” More good news. Can you see the good news in what it sounds Iike bad news all around you? The manifestation of evil is the end of them not the beginning. We have so many reasons to rejoice for the good news is really good if you can hear it.