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Monday Musings – Tuesday Las Flores Edition

Jesus is alive.

There are such things as dangerous prayers. They are not the prayers that put people in danger, they are prayers that result in you being in unfamiliar places doing things that are uncomfortable.  Your breakthrough with God will bring more responsibility but not necessarily more comfort. I have made a series of casual prayers with a sincere heart asking God why I have not experienced His grace in a particular way. I was asking for a specific manifestation of that grace but He is taking me through it another way.

This has been a slightly more uncomfortable process then I thought He would use but I can tell you faith is increasing.

Because of that process I got to catch more of the worship then normal.  I was worshiping with a handful of people and when I got on stage the place was full. We should let folks know worship starts at 10:30 a.m.

Courtney got a prophetic song and it was really powerful. I think a good part of the reason it was powerful was that she just completely yielded to the Spirit of Christ and let it flow. It was really good.

It was Mother’s Day so I preached on how the heart is desperately sick. Take that hallmark.

Had some great ministry time at the end dealing with offense and other heart stuff.

Tried to take Tracey out to lunch at a local Cuban place but they decided to jack up the prices for Mother’s Day.

We left.

Went to a Mexican place instead.

That night at ASD was amazing. Among other things there was a prophetic word that came a couple weeks ago about someone in a garden with Jesus. When I brought it up again at ASD I knew there was a grace for it to expand. I told the person that it was about to happen. Then I told everyone else to close their eyes that Jesus would show them something as well. About a dozen of us had the exact same vision of heaven with flowers miraculously growing out of a barren ground. I heard someone’s testimony of that being just a small part of a tour Jesus gave them of heaven.

Jealous!

Got home tired and knocked out.

Quick Baptism Video

Quick Baptism Video

Monday Musings – Baptismo Edition

I encountered all kinds of drama Sunday morning.  I don’t take this as an indicator of anything.  For me, lots of warfare means lots of warfare. I am extremely uncomfortable when people talk about the enemy using people as obstacles because these are people that Jesus died for.  Needless to say, I had issues in the morning.

Part of the issue was getting a peace on my message.  I could not really get breakthrough so after the first song I decided to go with what I had and went out to worship.

The air was not working.  ufff

It was hot.  We were told by the school staff that it was working but it wasn’t.  Near the middle of worship I told Tracey to call the school district.  The last school we used to meet at did nothing for us.  We had to do everything ourselves.  They really had a good deal with The Mission.  This school has been great.  But because of our old experiences we know who to call to get things done.  Tracey made the call and I felt the air on within fifteen minutes.

The average person has no idea how many things Tracey oversees at The Mission. Most important are the things she is not directly overseeing but gently leading. She is my eyes and ears pre-service and I can trust that when I come out things will be in order. Much of fluidity of the Sunday service is because she implements my vision. I earnestly hope I can move her from her job at FAU to The Mission sooner then later.

Fellas, choose wisely.

Right there in the middle of worship Holy Spirit told me to have a altar call for healing. I did not want to because Khamille was killing it right then but it makes sense to minister in the anointing. It greatly frustrates me when people want to get ministry after the service is over. Get ministry while the Holy Ghost is flowing.

Preached on something. I bet it was good because God told me to preach it but at the moment I don’t remember all the details.  Is that being too honest?

Had a baptism after that.  I think twenty people got baptized. Anointing was definitely on the waters.  Good time. Saw some amazing deliverance. Robin graduated from Southeastern.  She took this pic.  Really cool. Had a couple people come up out of the water and begin to prophesy. (psst there might be more then one initial evidence. check the book.)

After almost everyone was gone I found one of the guys who is becoming a real faithful servant in the house said he was hoping he would get the baptism in the HOly Ghost in the water. I said, “You aren’t baptized in the Holy Ghost? We can take care of that right now.”

He got filled.

It’s the promise of the Father.

Went to the office and put the finishing touches on Isaac’s science fair project.  He got first place at his school and now is on to the district fair.

That night at ASD was just kind of amazing. I mean really amazing. There was a point that more people were on the ground screaming and shaking while being overcome by the Spirit then not.  I tried to get some video of the night three times but every time it did not work.  Guess God wanted to save that one for himself.

Taught on authority, leadership, and some other stuff. One of the course materials was this message by Bill Johnson. Get it while it is still up.

Got home a little after ten. I had been home long enough to change and get back to ASD.  I was exhausted and to be honest, my body is sore.

Such is the life of a Holy Ghost preacher.

Monday Musings – Suffering Edition

Isaac riding with me in the truck after service.

So yesterday was a bit of a wild one for me.

First know that I have been battling a pretty bad cold the last two weeks.  As a matter of fact, Isaac is home with it today.  I have not slept well and had a really bad night sleep Saturday night.

Despite being sick, I had some really good time of prayer and study during the week.  No matter what my schedule is I have to make time for prayer and study.  This is not a discipline.  This is not a law I have made for myself.  This is a lifestyle.  I am unable to go for long periods of time with out spending time with God.  (I thought otherwise but realized I was wrong.  I hope to write more about this later.)

I had something I have been studying lately but never got a real flow with my message prep.  Sunday morning I quickly realized that what I had prepared would not be my message.  During the beginning of worship I was going over my notes when this realization was crystalized.  After I realized this I instantly heard the Father say, “I am with you.”  That phrase has a rich history between us so closed my books and went out to worship.

We did a new offering confession based on Deuteronomy 28 (the first half).  I thought it was great.  HOpe others did as well.

After that I realized it was not time for me to preach.  I tried to stall a little bit because I still did not know what I was supposed to preach, and then it just kind of started coming out of me.

I talked about how sometimes things are rough and it is not our fault.  Sometimes in this walk we are going to suffer.  It is not  a get up and shout and run around the room kind of message.  But it was the word of the Lord for the house.

I gave that word and felt no anointing whatsoever.  I did not feel any draw from the people.  I was getting absolutely no revelation.  There was nothing that lead me to believe that I was preaching anything other then what God was telling me to preach.  As a Spirit-filled preacher, you learn to track with the Holy Ghost at times and you learn to tune into what God is saying by the reactions of the people.  I was getting none of that.

All I could do was preach what God was telling me to preach.  I was giving a message based purely on obedience to the Father.  You could tell it was a miracle message because it was short. lol

At the end we sang a song, I lead the people in a prayer and since we still had a bunch of time we had a fire tunnel.

I went home having no idea if the message reached anyone.

A few hours later I was leading ASD and I asked if anyone in the room thought God had changed the message specifically for them.  Two thirds of the room raised their hands.

Wow.  I had no idea.

God knows.

At ASD I was pretty fried.  Between the cold and altar ministry I had almost no voice.  I talked about humility and the more I talked the better my voice got.  After that the Holy Ghost began to move. That got pretty amazing.  I was so spent that I let a key with Sam, left 20 people still manifesting the Holy Ghost and went home.

Monday Musings – ASD Edition

I have been fighting a cold all week.  I went to bed Saturday night praying the Lord would be merciful and grant me sleep.  Somewhere between here and there heaven heard, “Lord keep me up really late with an intercessory burden.”  I was contending late into the night and I am not afraid to admit part of my prayer was that I wanted it to end.

Woke up pretty tired and not feeling all that great, though better then I had been feeling.  I had a slow start but I was really excited about the day.

Khamille was in Brazil but she was supposed to be in service.  How do I know?  The Lord sent an American preacher to lead the service in English in Manaus.  That’s pretty funny.

Sergio lead worship on a bit of short notice.  My beautiful wife was on the team.  I love hearing her sing and watching her worship.  It is a serious effort for her to be on the worship team once a month.  In addition to all the other things she has to head up on Sunday mornings, on those days she has to get it all set up before she gets on stage for rehearsal and sound checks.  It’s nice to watch her sing though.

The anointing was so strong at the end of the worship set I did not know how I was going to preach.  The fear of the Lord was in the room.

I got on stage and had the super spiritual announcement that Lucas Pereira won the fly hat contest at the BBQ.

It was a close race and almost everyone else was in second place.

Preached a bunch of stuff I had no intention of preaching.  It is what it is.

Can I be honest?  It almost makes me laugh when I see someone’s demon manifest and they act like they are mad at me.  I want to tell them that they don’t have a problem with me, their demon hates God and they listen to the spirit more then they listen to the Holy Ghost.  I think that might not be very polite to say…from the stage.

I recently had to tell someone, “When that demon tries to kill you come back and I will cast it out.”

You can’t counsel a demon.

God’s grace is way more powerful then anything hell can muster up.

After service I did some premarital counseling.  I love pouring into young marriages.  Wish there were two of me so I could do it and nap at the same time.

Went home for 26 minutes then went back to the office for ASD (Advanced Spiritual Discipleship).

This is no exaggeration, this was one of the most anointed meetings I have ever been in .  I am looking forward to seeing what God does through this group of revivalists.  The pic above is how the meeting ended.

Gonna try to finish painting my bedroom this week.  This has taken way longer then I had ever envisioned.

Monday Musings – 3rd Birthday Edition

Happy Birthday!

At the pre-service meeting I told the folks that we are going to have short worship followed by a short word.  Sam Reynoso openly mocked me.

During worship the Lord gave me a vision of the Triumphal Entry.  I got up and talked about that for a minute.  Then we went back into Dance by Jesus Culture.  It was kind of amazing.  You had to be there.  The video of worship should be up tomorrow.

Through his powers of prophetic declaration, Sam caused worship to go long.  I have prayed that the Lord would spare Him in the Great Day for this open rebellion.

Based on the length of the announcements you might think we have a ton of things going on right now.  Folks need to read the bulletin.

I spoke about a word the Lord gave me that brought great clarity to what seemed like a meandering road this ministry has been on. 

Jesus said those filled with the Spirit are like the wind.  That has to mean something.

After service we had a BBQ.  You can find pictures here.

That was so much fun!  What amazed me were how many people I did not know who were there.  It was great to meet with folks I have only seen from the pulpit.

Got a flood of ASD applications. 

Get in your mission trip apps.  We need your deposit if you are going.

We are going to be switching up some stuff soon, get ready.

The winner of the fly hat contest will be announced this Sunday.

My Challenge to the Men of The Mission

Fella’s, think you are fly?  Check out this challenge.

Monday Musings – Wednesday after Easter Edition

A little late on the musings here. 

I love my church.  I really do. I love the people, their hearts for the lost and hurting, their heart for people away from God.  We are a group of people that truly believe that the greatest days are ahead of us.

Sunday morning service really begins on Friday night when we have intercession.  We cry out for the lost.  We cry out for this area, and particularly this Friday we cried out for our families.  Catch a video clip of it here.

Before service I was out in the worship center and there were lots of folks who brought family.  That was great.

I believe God does not call individuals, He calls families. 

We have done special services for Christmas and Easter in the past.  Last year I even tried to wear a suit coat but it does not work for us.  (I took the coat off minutes into the message.) We are who we are.  I like the church that we are and we are not going to fake it for visitors.  I always found it disingenuous but acquiesced to the church growth geniuses.  Bottom line is that we are who we are.  No matter what service you come to you are going to see us.  We aren’t hiding any other theology in the back room.

We had a Friday night communion service where I preached the baptism in the Holy Ghost.  Easter Sunday?  Preached the baptism in the Holy Ghost. 

That’s who we are and I believe that God put a big fat AMEN on it in worship.

See, Easter is supposed to be the easy entry service.  You are supposed to have a play or special production, preach a short message, get folks in and out making them think your church is easy to attend.  That works for some.   But God brings us folks who not looking for that.  And frankly there are people who do that really well and I don’t have any problem referring people to those churches.  There is a church for everyone.

The Mission is based on people who want to live a radical life.  We are built on people who want to live out the “Go” of the Gospel found in Matt 10:7-8. 

Sunday morning the visitors showed up before the regulars.  So Khamille was trying to lead folks who do not go to church in deep worship.  After a while I got up on stage and talked to the people and we got into worship mode.

So in the middle of worship I was on my face before God.  I kept telling the Holy Ghost that the service was His.  He could do whatever He wanted to do.  I knew we had a room full of visitors.  I knew there would be a pull to put on a pretty church service and look respectable. 

I absolutely do not want respectability over anointing.

Within 40 seconds Khamille started singing a new song.  I went back and checked the video.  Now I am not talking about a little catchy hook that was not in the song.  I am talking about a full flow prophetic song that lasted 8 minutes.   At the beginning it was a sing along song but it went into Khamille prophesying in song.  This would make many pastors squirm, and rightfully so.  Lots of goofy stuff has happened in the name of prophecy.

But we have been having Sunday morning meetings for three years, and I have pastored Khamille for a lot longer than that.  If the leaders can’t discern and respond to the voice of the Lord in ministry we need to hang it up.

So as this was going on I just started to laugh.  I laughed because this is what all the church growth books tell me to avoid at all cost.  I laughed because of all the people I love and respect who tell me to leave the gifts for the home groups.  I laughed because right here on Resurrection Sunday most folks want God nowhere near their services until the altar call and God decided that He would show up at The Mission because we have made a place for Him during the whole service.

I laughed because, yet again, the Holy Ghost has told me to choose the anointing.

As a matter of fact, right after the song I got on stage to do communion.  What better time, right?  When I get on the mic you can hear me laughing for all these reasons. You can watch a video of prophetic song here.

When I got into my message I talked about how God wants to fill us so we can change the world.  After that I have a simple altar call to get right with Jesus. No hype, I didn’t prep folks to come forward throughout my message.  I didn’t even think about the altar call till I was done with my message. 

I just gave an invitation and over twenty people responded.

Holy Ghost!

Afterwards I had some ham and sides at the house with a few folks then knocked out in a deep coma nap.

Pix, videos, and podcast is up.

I love Jesus and the people I serve Him with.

Monday Musings–Tuesday Video Edition

Here are my top 5 take-aways from this past Sunday service.

Monday Morning Musings–Revival Now Edition

Whew!  That was a great, and LONG weekend.  I woke up with a serious Holy Ghost hangover.

My good friend David Copeland was in town this weekend.  He has been a true friend to me and this church from the very beginning.  I can’t tell you how important it is to have people in your life who have walked the road before you and get what you are trying to do. 

Friday night he shared a word with our intercessors.  Like normal the heavy presence of the Lord was in the room and people cried out for more of Jesus.

On Saturday Tracey and Pam went shopping while David and I chopped up the word.  I kept looking for areas to debate but we were pretty much on the same page.  Though we were not conclusive, I am now convinced more then ever that we very well may be the two witnesses at the end of the book (not really). After that we preached to each other for another couple hours or so and then we challenged each other.  For me, being the challenger was way more fun then being challenged.

Still processing that one.

Sunday David shared a prophetic dream he had about the Glory of God invading our church.

BAM!  I receive.

Worship was great.  Had some really good altar ministry.

Met some new people.  Hope they become a part of the family.

Sunday night we had our first meeting in our office/storage area.  It took a minute to get the ball rolling but when it got going, my oh my.

We started with a little worship music.  My daughter played the keys.  That blesses a father.

Then folks from the worship team lead us in some song, and then all heaven broke out.  At one point the presence of God came so strong the fear of the Lord came upon me.  There is no other way to describe it.  The awesome and terrible presence of God came.

Live were changed, gifts were imparted, demons cast out, destinies realized, and love embraced.  At the end I went home completely spent.

Today I took the Copelands to the airport after we had a nice lunch at the house.

Overall a great weekend.