Sunday, September 29, 2019

Listening Prayer by Pastors Brent Lokker and Todd Lout

The busy lives we lead. The negative surroundings we live in. The disappointments, the distractions…all these things contribute to a gradual forgetting to get quiet and listen to that “still, small voice”, just waiting to help
us out.  The good news is that no matter how far we’ve slipped into detrimental comfort zones that eat away at real peace, the place of meeting with our Father isn’t going anywhere. We can step right back into the zone where we become centered again, focused and confident because of a steadfast love that has all the answers and doesn’t leave.

Saturday night, Pastor Brent gave us a quick overview of how to implement what we call “listening prayer” into our lives.  This phrase, “Listening Prayer”, may be foreign to some of you reading this, so here’s a simple explanation: God is talking.  We can hear.  He has always desired relationship, which is why we exist in the first place.  We often think He’s not talking, but much of the time this misconception simply comes from our own overcrowded way of living.
So much traffic is moving through our minds that we just need to get intentional with “being still” to “know” (an intimate, relational bond that produces confidence) that He really is God over our lives.  So again, God IS talking.
We can position ourselves to get quiet before Him, ask some questions, be still enough to hear His answer and let it soak in. This is what we call listening prayer. It’s two ways, which becomes multi-dimensional the more we
enter into it.

Here’s some simple steps that Pastor Brent laid out for us on Saturday:
  1. Quiet yourself - try to eliminate distractions. 
  2. Focus inward on the Lord, who lives in you (“Christ in me!”)
  3. With a sincere heart, ask God to speak to you and let Him know that you want to hear from Him ANYTHING He wants to reveal to you. 
  4. Ask a question: 
       a. “Father, is there anything You want to communicate to me?”
       b. “Father, what do You think about me?”
       c. “Father, would You give me wisdom about……?”
    5. Journal - This is so good for later, when the busyness starts up again. Go                         back and read what you heard in your heart. Meditate on it. 
No matter where you are, you can meet Him there.  Some intention, though, does help us out a whole lot.  This can look like making an appointment, going into a quiet space, walking away from something.  He really will meet with us and give us His wisdom.
                                                                              Love, Todd
Here’s what I want you to do: Find a quiet, secluded place so you won’t be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense his grace.
- Matthew 6:6 -
If you don’t know what you’re doing, pray to the Father. He loves to help.
You’ll get his help, and won’t be condescended to when you ask for it.
Ask boldly, believingly, without a second thought.
- James 1:5 & 6 -

Friday, September 27, 2019

Feeling Discouraged? A Fresh Start Is Upon Us - by Pastor Brent Lokker

Are you feeling discouraged lately? Sluggish? Aimless?

In just two days you’ll be ushered into a fresh new start! Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, begins at sundown this Sunday, Sept 29. This will commence the Ten Days of Awe, which culminates in Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, from sundown Oct. 8 through sundown Oct. 9. These past several years, I've intentionally used these ten days to fast from things that may have dulled my spiritual alertness as I’ve leaned in closer to hear the heartbeat and voice of God more clearly through increased times of worship, taking communion daily, and praying through prophetic words that I’ve received. The fruit of this focused attention on the life of Christ in me has been increased revelation and clearer direction.

For us who live in the New Covenant of the grace of Jesus, keeping the Jewish feasts brings us no closer to God than we already are—we are already one with Christ!  Yet our heavenly Father is the one who ordained these feasts and Jesus most certainly took part in them when he lived as a Jewish man on the earth. God gave the feasts to point our spiritual fathers and mothers to Christ and those same feasts, though not required for followers of Jesus to celebrate, can be used to keep our focus on Christ, who alone sustains us.

With that said, this new year we are entering into, 5780, is highly significant. There’s also an interesting correlation between the prophetic symbolism of the Jewish New Year 5780 and the Gregorian calendar year 2020. 20/20 in our society symbolizes "perfect vision."

In the most prophetic sort of way, between the year 5780 is sandwiched the number 78.These two numbers come together in this way just twice every 1,000 years. This relates to the Hebrew letter Ayin, which carries the numerical value of 70, while the letter Pey carries the numerical value of 80.  Ayin (meaning eye) and Pey (meaning mouth, word or breath) give us a glimpse of the future as we leap into a new era of "Voice and Vision" (5780/2020). God is going to cause us to see what He sees more clearly than ever, and speak His truth into people and situations that will cause monumental shifts! This includes seeing your own life with His clarity, speaking His truth into your own situations, and watching them shift, often rapidly.

We are called to be salt and light upon the earth. As a result, a shift is taking place where the purification process we’ve allowed the Lord to bring us through has graced our speech with a greater wisdom and a purer prophetic flow of truth. There's a new sound arising for setting the captives free. God has been preparing His people for this crossover into 5780 for a long time!

Can I encourage you to be intentional in your positioning to listen and receive what the Lord wants to show you, release to you and align in your life as we move into 5780, with your surrender, obedience and deep love. Greater encounters with Jesus and knowing Him and His ways await you. Greater realms of wisdom and revelation await you. (Jeremiah 33:3) But it requires your response.

Allow the hand of the Lord to do what He needs to do because He is preparing you for demonstrations of the greatest alignment and increase that you have ever seen before.

With Much Love,

Pastor Brent

Thursday, September 19, 2019

Coming Home to Our True Identity by Charles Razzell

Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us
in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes
Ephesians 1:4 (NLT)

Simon the Sorcerer’s Story

We read in Acts 8:9 that Simon had practiced sorcery in the city for some time, and that he boasted that he was someone great. His inflated ego (and his sense of self-worth) was aided by the reaction of the people to his use of borrowed supernatural power: “all the people, both high and low, gave him their attention.” Simon, we see, was an attention junky. He believed he was someone great and got lots of positive reinforcement for that, even though all his “ability” was borrowed from the demonic realm.

But then Philip enters the scene proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ. Many were baptized, both men and women.

Simon also believed and was baptized… and followed Philip everywhere, astonished by the great signs and miracles he saw. Even Simon, the epicenter of magical mischief, became a believer and was baptized! But, sadly, his main interest still seems to be a fascination with the supernatural, rather than relationship with Jesus.

When Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money and said, “give me also this ability.”  He easily slipped back into “supernatural entrepreneur” mode, returning to his old way of thinking.

I find it interesting that Simon is not recorded as receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit. Had his heart been in the right place I would have expected him be one of the first in the prayer line, but instead we read that he “saw”, i.e., he observed from some distance off.  He had been offered something far more valuable than a source of income, he had been offered sonship, an intimate connection with his Creator.
 

Saul/Paul’s Story

We find Saul breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. (Acts 9:1)  By his own account, he was fully committed to his ethnic and religious idendity: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, faultless in his obedience to the Law of Moses and zealous in his persecution of the church. As a pharisee, he had authority, respect and (misguided) purpose.

God intervened dramatically in Saul’s life: as he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” (Acts 9:3).

While Saul’s calling was sudden and dramatic, his response and discipleship took years to work out. We read in Galatians 1:15-18 that his immediate response was not to consult any human being; rather, he went into Arabia for a while before returning to Damascus. Only three years after that did he go up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Peter. The implication is that Paul didn’t get his discipleship training from any human source, but spent time directly communing with God, being transformed by the renewing of his mind. Not only did his name change, but his whole value system, identity and purpose was re-formed in the Potter’s hands!  As Paul himself testifies:
But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ, and be found in him…
Notice the phrase “in Him,” meaning in Christ. The word “in” implies something deeper and more intimate than “with.” To be “in Christ” means to be organically united to Him, as a limb is in the body or a branch is in the tree. Jesus said, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5)
 

Our Invitation, Our Story

Simon the Sorcerer wanted a piece of the action (“give me also this ability”) whereas Paul’s heart-cry was whole-hearted and relational, to “gain Christ and be found in Him.”  Paul was utterly changed from the inside out and, living from his true identity, became a true world-changer.

In this season, let’s be sensitive to God’s invitation to true intimacy and sonship, spending time with Him, being transformed into His likeness and bearing much fruit. And if our busy lives are pressing on us, may we have the wisdom to choose what is better, and thereby receive something that will not be taken away from us (Luke 10:42).

Friday, September 6, 2019

A Matter of the Heart by Pastor Susan Fochler

It’s tempting to hope that a Damascus Road experience like Saul had would somehow fix all our issues.  One minute, walking down the street minding your own business, the next, a face to face with God.  How cool would that be!  Somehow I don’t think it was quite that simple.

A Suddenly, and a Process
It took just a moment being “blinded by the light” and hearing God’s audible voice for Saul to recognize he’d been wrong about Jesus the whole time.  It changed the trajectory of his life forever.  However, it was a much deeper work, like 12 years in the wilderness, for the reality of God's unconditional love to penetrate his heart.

New Identity
“Saul” means sought after; Saul was a well respected Jewish leader educated in the Hebrew law.  He came out of the wilderness as “Paul”, which means little.  He now has a new identity, not as a well known leader, but as one with Christ.  He had to die to all the old ways he'd felt worth about himself.  I'm sure that was a hard journey, to surrender all that was familiar, just as it is for us.  As he says in Galatians 2:20:
           “My old identity has been co-crucified with Messiah and no longer
      lives: for the  nails of His cross crucified me with Him.  And now the
      essence of this new life is no longer mine, for the anointed One lives
      his life through me-we live in union as one!  My new life is empowered
      by the faith of the Son of God who loves me so much that He gave
      Himself for me, and dispenses His life into mine!”
Truly, these were not just words to Paul, but his living, breathing, daily reality.

Revelation becoming Foundation
I had something like a Damascus Road experience many years ago.  I had a sudden, life changing revelation that God loved me in a way I’d never known before.  I lived in His overflowing nearness continuously for the next two or three years.  My heart would rise up in worship spontaneously throughout the day.  I suppose I started to take it for granted.  The glory wave I’d been riding slowly began to dissipate and I no longer woke up every morning full of joy and God’s presence.  I entered a new season where I needed to learn how to possess His love as my own.  This love was a free gift, but a gift that needed to be unpacked and valued in order to be fully incorporated into my life.  And that revelation continues to unfold to this day.

Every Day God is with Us
Like with Saul, God sometimes reveals Himself in very profound, unmistakable ways; other times he shows up in tender moments we might miss if we blink.  But always, He is with us, dedicated and engaged.  Check it out.  He's in the next breath you take.

Love,
Susan