Tabitha and the Miraculous by Pastor Todd Lout

ACTS 9 :36 - 42 Now, there was a follower of Jesus who lived in Joppa. Her Aramaic name, Tabitha, means “gazelle.” She lived her life doing kind things for others and serving the poor. But then she became very ill and died. After the disciples prepared her body for burial, they laid her in an upstairs room. When the believers heard that Peter was nearby in Lydda, they sent two men with an urgent message for him to come without delay. So Peter went with them back to Joppa, and upon arriving they led him to the upper room. There were many widows standing next to Peter, weeping. One after another showed him the tunics and other garments that Tabitha had made to bless others. Peter made them all leave the room. Then he knelt down and prayed. Turning to the dead body, he said, “Tabitha, rise up!” At once she opened her eyes, and seeing Peter, she sat up.  He took her by the hand and helped her to her feet. Then he called for the believers and all the widows to come and see that she was alive! The news spread all over the city of Joppa, and many believed in the Lord.

We've been on a great journey through Acts this year. Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeey! This last Saturday night we dove into the story of Peter raising up this faithful woman, Tabitha, from the dead. Notice the confidence in which Peter simply tells her body to rise up.  Through his relationship with Jesus, Peter confidently tells her to come back to life, as though it was a matter of fact that she would. Is it possible that God is waiting for us, His kids, to have confidence in Him and His word like this? YES! We pray, "Your kingdom come and Your will be done here just like it's done in Heaven.", but it's so often still hard for us to truly believe that we can, "lay hands on the sick and they will recover." As time ticks on in this planet, there are millions of needs for what we call the miraculous.  God is willing.  In fact, it's not "the miraculous" in His world at all.  It's simply Him breathing, being Who He is and living where He does.  We get to have deep relationship with the most powerful entity that exists, because He desires it with us.  As His friends, as His kids, we not only have access to His world, but we carry it in us. He even promises us, in Romans 8:11, that the very same power that raised Jesus, Himself, from the dead is inside of us right now. Let's get confident about this!  God and His reality has never changed and He still lets us do what we call the miraculous. This truth is more common knowledge and action in third world countries today.  We have a harder time seeing it or believing it largely because we are just so comfortable here in the US.  But when there's a constant need to see God break through, the people will just assume He will, and He does! We really need to allow ourselves to be hungry for God and His world more.  Try meditating on things like Psalm 84, "How lovely are Your dwelling places. My soul LONGS for Your that world in me!" Saturday I shared a few personal testimonies about miracles happening in my own family. You can listen to that here:

Tabitha and the Miraculous, Saturday Oct. 26

Peter was a special guy, but so are you! (I mean, unless you're a girl...then you're a special girl) You have God's love, His power, His heart, His kingdom inside of you, right now, just waiting to be released into situations.  What a thing to praise God for! Let's go out and bring the miraculous as history is still being written today!

It's Time To Align by Pastor Brent Lokker

Last week when Jo Moody was with us, she had us stand before she preached and spoke a simple prayer… “Holy Spirit, come!”  Then she gave him time to move in and around and amongst our hearts, saying to us, “Wait for it…” In that moment, God’s Spirit was supernaturally shifting something in my brain—it felt physiological—causing me to clearly perceive from His vantage point what was true. Two things became crystal clear in that instant: (1) A huge revival, which will include a massive harvest of souls beyond anything history has ever seen, is most certainly coming; and (2) Alignment with God’s heart and His Kingdom order is essential! These things felt so real, like they had already happened, even though they are still to take place.

Faith celebrates as certain what hope visualizes as future. (Hebrews 11:1 in The Mirror Bible)

A huge revival is coming so it’s imperative that we align ourselves fully with God so that what’s important to Him becomes of utmost importance to us as well. What does alignment look like? Everything must begin with aligning our individual hearts to God’s heart We agree He is a good, good Father We agree we are His treasured sons and daughters We align our values with His. Values like kindness, love, forgiveness, mercy, generosity, honor and humility We give Jesus permission to show us things in our hearts that need to go. We repent, renounce and return to God’s ways. We repent of Judgments Unforgiveness Offense A critical spirit (towards others and ourselves!) Petty jealousy Apathy We yield and submit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, which includes embracing His purposes for our lives. In so doing, we become His bright lights on the earth! We discover who we were meant to be and move in the power of the Holy Spirit with the gifts we’ve been given to demonstrate the beauty, glory and goodness of God! As we individually align our hearts to God’s heart and yield ourselves to His perfect purposes for our lives, we will also come into a beautifully orchestrated alignment with one another and with the entire body of Christ across the globe. Which is exactly the Father’s plan and precisely what’s needed for a huge harvest of sons and daughters who are coming into God’s family. We are alive for such a time as this! With Love, Brent

The Mystery of God's Realm In Us by Pastor Russ Fochler

“So don’t ever be afraid, dearest friends! Your loving Father joyously gives you his kingdom realm with all its promises!” Luke 12:33 The Passion Translation “The privilege of intimately knowing the mystery of God’s kingdom realm has been granted to you, but not to the others, where everything is revealed in parables." Mark 4:11 The Passion Translation

These passages stir my heart. We'll be happily exploring the extravagant gift of participating in our Father's Kingdom the rest of our current life and beyond. It all begins and is fulfilled in our intimate friendship with Jesus.  Those who just want to leverage a connection with Jesus for personal power/wealth/fame will miss the "intimate knowing of the mystery of God's kingdom realm". The ways of God's realm are a mystery to those who live only by basic impulses of greed and self-protection (what the Apostle Paul called "the flesh" or "sarx").  But, when we live in communion with the Holy Spirit, God's realm is welcomed and accessible. At the beginning of 2019, the elders of Blazing Fire felt drawn by God to focus upon Holy Spirit and the Book of Acts this year.  Last Saturday, I spoke from Acts 10.  It's the story of Cornelius, a Roman Centurion whose worship, prayers and gifts to the poor had come up like pleasing, aromatic incense before God.  Our Father's loving response was to send Peter and give Cornelius with his family and friends the good news about Jesus along with the experiential gift of the Holy Spirit.

"For the kingdom of God is not a matter of rules about food and drink, but is in the realm of the Holy Spirit, filled with righteousness, peace, and joy." Romans 14:17 The Passion Translation

For many years, I was taught and believed this "righteousness" is simply my legal status because of Jesus' sacrifice on the Cross for me.  Important sure, but how does this "righteousness" fully bring God's realm in me and through me? The Greek term translated "righteousness" commonly meant, "integrity, virtue, purity of life, uprightness, correctness in thinking, feeling, and acting".  Furthermore, The Passion Translation notes: "Righteousness means, both in the context and in the Hebraic mind-set, kindness in our relationships. Paul is speaking of putting others first and expressing goodness in having right relationships with others as well as right living." And when Paul wrote about "peace", he was thinking of the Hebrew word "shalom" which meant wholeness, completeness, soundness, health, safety and prosperity, carrying with it the implication of permanence. Joy comes when we experience someone happy to be with us and we are happy to be with them.  In God's presence is fullness of joy!  (Psalm 16). Holy Spirit, we're grateful all of these (righteousness, shalom, and joy) are experienced in you and we want more!

"So above all, constantly chase after the realm of God’s kingdom and the righteousness that proceeds from him. Then all these less important things will be given to you abundantly. Matthew 6:33 The Passion Translation

Seeking God's Kingdom first and His righteousness are inconceivable without Holy Spirit.  Even if we could "do and say the right things" on our own (hah!), we would be missing the wholeness, shalom, and joy Holy Spirit has. "Holy Spirit we greatly desire to be filled, saturated, led, and empowered by You.  By You we enjoy intimate friendship with Jesus.  By You we experience God as our loving father." With Joy and Hope, Pastor Russ

Making Room For Growth by Pastor Karena Lout

“Continue to grow and increase in God’s grace and intimacy with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.” 2 Peter 3:18

A few years ago, I found myself telling God all I thought He needed to do and how He should do it in my life. My original intent was to sit quietly and ask for His leading and direction in my life. After I stopped rambling, Jesus said to me, “If you don’t find yourself asking me questions, you might have to consider that you’re too comfortable already having all the answers.”

“Go ahead and make all the plans you want, but it’s the Lord who will ultimately direct your steps. We are all in love with our own opinions, convinced they’re correct. But the Lord is in the midst of us, testing and probing our every motive. Before you do anything, put your trust totally in God and not in yourself. Then every plan you make will succeed.”  Proverbs 16:1-3 (TPT)

I knew at the root of it all was that I didn’t fully trust God would come through for me. This is an area I’ve been growing in and it’s something I’ve had to make room for. What does it look like to make room for growth? For me, it means staying teachable. It’s welcoming correction in my life from healthy leaders and friends I trust. It looks like kicking pride, fear and control out of the driver’s seat and inviting vulnerability, surrender and healing in. There’s nothing passive about it.  Even though Saul had a life changing, supernatural encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus, he still had a lot of maturing and healing that needed to happen after. Before he met Jesus, he was as legalistic as they came. He was born into a family of Pharisees. All of his identity was wrapped up in his intellect and religious beliefs. Acts 9:22 tells us, “Saul’s power INCREASED greatly as he became more and more proficient in proving Jesus was the Messiah.” There was a progression. His writings and first missionary journey were 14 years after his encounter, and later we know him as Paul the apostle.  He writes in Galatians 2:1 “I spoke privately with those who were viewed as senior leaders of the church. I wanted to make certain my my labor and ministry for the Messiah had not been based on a false understanding of the gospel.”  Paul completely submitted himself to Jesus because he didn’t want to misuse the power he was given. Unfortunately this happens when put in the hands of authority who are unwilling to look at their pain and invite Jesus’ healing. But Jesus shows us that He always uses His power to heal and to love us. God is more concerned with the condition of our hearts than He is with all of our abilities and gifts. Pride keeps growth and healing at a distance.  We can only embrace the process of growth in our lives when we understand all Jesus paid on the cross for our complete freedom. I pray for all the grace and courage to say yes to this journey in your own life. I pray that your story will be the light that will lead others out of darkness, just as Paul’s experience in Damascus became the spirit of prophecy for all those who heard his message. I pray that you would give yourself space to grow from your mistakes and that you would lean into Jesus’ strength in every place you feel weak.

Click here to listen to Karena's message from Saturday night.

Grace Shines Brightly by Pastor Brent Lokker

Last Saturday I gave multiple examples of how grace leads us into a close relationship with God while religion (the keeping of rules) keeps us at a distance. Here are a few examples:

Religious Rule Keeping Is performance and fear based Focuses on punishment Always asks: "Am I doing enough to please God?" Believes my past is too big and horrible for God to forgive Judges & condemns myself and others Thinks God is angry with me when I sin and looking to find all the wrong things I do

Grace & Faith-based Relationship with God Is acceptance and love-based Focuses on restoration Believes that Jesus has made me enough! I am pleasing to my Father! Loves and accepts myself and others while helping them to grow Knows that God hates the sin that hurts me and is training me to use my freedom to love myself

You can listen to the rest of the message here While it’s 100% true that we are saved by grace and that we can’t “do” anything for God to love us any more than he already does, it’s also 100% true that out of his love and grace, our heavenly Father has always wanted us to walk in the light and freedom of who we are as his holy ones. His grace gifts of forgiveness and freedom in Christ were never meant to be used to walk back into darkness. Once your life was full of sin’s darkness, but now you have the very light of our Lord shining through you because of your union with him. Your mission is to live as children flooded with his revelation-light! And the supernatural fruits of his light will be seen in you—goodness, righteousness, and truth. Then you will learn to choose what is beautiful to our Lord. Whatever the revelation-light exposes, it will also correct, and everything that reveals truth is light to the soul. (Ephesians 5:8-10,13 TPT) What is your mission? To live as children flooded with his revelation-light! And why does his light expose and correct darkness in us? Because… You are God’s chosen treasure—priests who are kings, a spiritual “nation” set apart as God’s devoted ones. He called you out of darkness to experience his marvelous light, and now he claims you as his very own. He did this so that you would broadcast his glorious wonders throughout the world.  (1 Peter 2:9, TPT) This leads us right back to the Father’s plan: We get to display the nature of God wherever we go, not by trying to be good, but by allowing Christ in us to shine brightly! With Much Love, Pastor Brent