Dear Prayer Team,
God is good! I can’t explain in detail what has happened even in the last 4 days. I spoke at New Song Church LA, Harvest Rock Prophetic Conference, Organic Church Conference and One Vision (Corporate Unity Night for UCLA) this past weekend. Phew! At each gathering, hundreds of students re-encountered God’s presence, were challenged in prayer and were envisioned to start simple churches on campuses. It has been physically tiring, but I really feel God’s GRACE on me to persevere in this season. It has been well worth it to see the hearts of students return to seek God’s face, know Him more and spread His love to their campuses!!!
MASSIVE PRAYER NEEDED FOR TAIWAN STUDENT CRUSADES AND LEADERSHIP TRAININGS!!!
I started my Fuller Seminary courses again. The classes I am taking are online, they are great courses focusing on Global Leadership. At the same time, I have been deeply overwhelmed with making sure I do my coursework with excellence, while still doing local ministry in LA and itinerant traveling. Please do keep me in your prayers, especially for the rest of this month and the entire month of February. I will be gone 5 straight weeks equipping leaders in Asia and the US in prayer and campus church planting. Somehow I feel the grace of God on all that is in front of me, more than anything else I am just crying out for my heart to encounter God’s affections at a deeper level. To know the depths of His emotions and the pleasures of His heart towards me. More and more, I realize the more you do with God, the more time you need in His presence. Without His presence I can do nothing. A leader is not a leader, unless he has something to give. You can’t give, what you don’t have. If we do ministry for God, but lose our relationship with Him, then what is the point? Our first ministry is not to change the world for Christ, our first ministry is intimacy with Christ. I want my heart to feel His pleasure, I want my heart to feel the gladness of God, I want my heart to come alive with life when I close my eyes to pray, when I drive on the freeway, when I walk onto campus, when I prepare to preach, I want to know and live in the pleasure of God. I want Him, I don’t want ministry, I want Him. This battle is fierce, it is the battle for our hearts. I look before me, and the needs and responsibilities seem to never exhaust, but one thing I desire, even if I have to lose it all, or get an “F” on a paper, I’d rather fail my class, then lose my intimacy with Christ. We were created for relationship with God, not just any God, but a God that if you truly knew His wonder, you would be so utterly ruined, you would only desire one thing: His presence. I want God to ruin me again, the way I was ruined at 18 with no care in the world, when I didn’t have to look at the clock, when I could just be wasted in His presence for hours, simply just to be with Him to be with Him. I don’t want to die a preacher, I want to die a lovesick worshipper, in love with Jesus each day more than the day before. Take me to that place again Lord, give me grace to keep You cherished in my heart, even when there is so much to do before me, that I would not trade You for anything, I need grace to make it, I need grace to stay in Your joy, oh God of gladness fill me with your everlasting pleasures forevermore! Keep me from busyness, discipline me in Your love, never let me lose this one thing, the JOY of Your presence upon my heart. God, let my heart “feel” again Your passion, Your gladness, Your delight, Your happy heart. Help me Lord, I need to walk with You, not by myself. Enoch walked with you, he must have felt such joy in Your presence, I want that consistency, God give me grace to follow.
Psalm 16:8-11
8 I have set the LORD always before me; Because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved. 9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices; My flesh also will rest in hope. 10 For You will not leave my soul in Sheol, Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption. 11 You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
Pray for UCLA, that God would unite the Body of Christ on this campus for one sole purpose, to lift up JESUS CHRIST so that all men, all women, on this university would be drawn unto Him. Please pray for 1/29/07 that God would bring His people at UCLA, from every local church, fellowship, ministing into One Heart, One Accord, One Vision for His glory. Amen
House Churches Are More Satisfying to Attenders Than Are Conventional Churches
I received permission from the Barna Group to publish the following research article on the rising tide of house or simple churches arising in North America. Mike Bickle received a prophecy years ago, “I will change the understanding and expression of Christianity in the whole earth in one generation” Prophetically, God is restoring the heart of His Church, by releasing revelation for the Church worldwide to understand it’s identity as a Bride and He as Bridegroom. It is a revealing of the sons and daughters of God (Romans 8) who know their identity as a cherished Bride in Christ, unblemished and unashamed. Apostolically, the Church is going through a major shift in its structure, being restored back to its New Testament apostolic roots. Namely, a house church movement of people, not buildings, programs or personalities running the show, but Jesus at the head of His army, releasing a nameless and faceless generation empowered to walk in the fullness of destiny in this urgent hour for a great end time harvest. It is not about going to church, but being the church, everyday, every place, where we are, till kingdom come! Whether on a college campus, in the workplace or in a neighborhood, we are to “be and do church” proclaiming the kingdom of God has come. Where two or three gather, in His name, His authority is established and His power is made available to make disciples of all nations.
This is one strategic gathering you will not want to miss on the rising tide of organic church movements in North America. The line up of speakers is prophetically intelligent and apostolic in practice, to find out more go to:
http://cmaresources.org/greenhouse/conference.asp
# Friday night: (6-10 PM including a full served dinner at 6 PM)
Neil Cole (author of Organic Church: Growing Faith Where Life Happens and Cultivating a Life for God) will speak on: “Why didn’t I take the Blue Pill: speaking candidly about the darkside of Organic Church”
Reggie McNeal (author of Present Future: Six Tough Questions for the Church, Revolution in Leadership: Training Apostles for Tomorrows Church, will speak about: “Qualities of a Missional Leader”
# Saturday Morning: (8 Am – 11:45 includes a continental breakfast early and a buffet lunch)
Alan Hirsch (co-author of The Shaping of Things to Come: Innovation and Mission for the 21st Century Church, and author of the newly released Forgotten Ways: Reactivating the Missional Church) will speak on: “Jesus made me do it: acting our way into new ways of thinking”
Ori Brafman (co-author of The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations) “Starfish Organizations: the unstoppable power of decentralized movements”
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