Value before Influence

Kris Vallotton writes:

We are called to disciple all the nations of the world. Discipling nations means submerging them in God- not religion- and “teaching them to observe all that I commanded you” (Matt. 28:20). Teaching nations how to think is the transformational catalyst to changing cultures. But as long as Christians aren’t valued in society they will have no influence in the world. (You only have as much influence in people’s lives as they have value for you.  Anytime you try to have more influence than someone has value for you, you will manipulate them.)

While Kris addresses a larger audience, as a minister to students, I think of our youth culure and have to ask myself, “Do students find value in me?” because if they don’t, then my words won’t find a place to land. I’ve had the misfortune of seeing several mentors lose influence when the mentee decided that actions and words were mismatched and honor was not valued. Situations turned into games of manipulation.

I pray that as Christians we never lose  a chance to influence and impact God’s Kingdom.

Love the One You’re With

As I drove to work yesterday, I couldn’t stop thinking about love. Do I really love people? Do I love all people, all ranks, no matter what? Do I live out of God’s love for people? I made a promise to myself that I would love harder and more intently throughout my day. When I was challenged by another’s words I tried hard to love out of God’s heart when my love for them might have been low on the fuel gage.

All day, this idea of love wouldn’t let me go; driving home, I thought of the 70′s song and lyrics, “Love the One You’re With.” What if I truly showed love to every person that I was with at the moment? What would that look like? Love Everyone. Love the one you are with right now. The exterminator; the postman; the bank teller; the waitress; the young guy bagging the groceries; the boss; the assistant; and the custodian.

 1 Thessalonians 2:8 won’t leave me alone: “We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us.”

What does it look like to share our lives? What if everyone became dear to us because we lived out of the knowledge that everyone is dear to God? In 2 Peter 3:8b, we find: “He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”

How do we  live out God’s desire to see EVERY ONE loved? “Love the one you’re with.”

Lavish Love

Today has been ridiculous in the Presence of the Lord! I have experienced His Presence on many occassions but NEVER has it been on this level! Today I went on a treasure hunt ( I will explain later) and prayed over four people and watched as they received physical healings along with words from the Lord about personal situations in their lives. As I prayed for people, I felt heat leaving my hands, power surges at times, and vibrations.  If that wasn’t enough, I just finished a worship service like no other. Some guy I’ve never met came up to me and was praying over me and in the spiritual realm, I saw two angels, one on each side of me. They were huge! All I could see from my periphery were gigantic wings. I couldn’t even see their shoulders as their shoulders stood at least six-foot high. Dan, the guy who prayed over me said that he saw the angels depositing gifts inside of me: prophecy, words of knowledge, discernment and they were very strong but would not be revealed until they were ready to be used.

 He continued praying and  said he saw finances.  It was crazy! I’d never even spoken to this guy. Wow. He said that God was going to bring financial blessings and then he prayed that there would be creative wisdom in our household that would bring about the change.

 Dan was still praying over me when the speaker began the next teaching. Dan and I both sensed that the Lord was not done and agreed to meet after the teaching to continue what the Lord was doing. I found Dan after the service and this time, more revelation came.

 As Dan prayed over me as second time,  I felt  a helmet around my head. I had been praying for a greater mental clarity and an ability to retain information that I have studied. Dan said, “I see a bunch of clouds”; six months ago, a friend had prophesied the word, “cloudy” over me and had said that God was going to begin removing that. So I was surprised but knew exactly that the Lord was addressing mental clarity. Dan said he saw the clouds departing and the sun shining through. In my body, even prior to Dan speaking over me, I felt a tingling in my head. Then I felt a whirlwind/tornado like tunnel circling in my mind, representative of the wind of the Holy Spirit and it traveled down from my mind and into my heart.

 Dan then sensed from the Holy Spirit that God would begin giving me simple dreams which would change my mindset. There would be a freedom from some lies that I have believed and the dreams were going to bring clarity like a camera lens that was beginning to gain focus. Then he spoke Isaiah 61 over me about being sent to bind up the brokenhearted, proclaim freedom for the captives, and a release from darkness for the prisoners, proclaim the Lord’s favor, and so forth…and then beauty for ashes. For weeks, I have sensed the Lord telling me that I am an evangelist and so these verses confirmed that word from the Lord.  

Just after it got quiet, a new friend, Rhona came up not knowing that Isaiah 61 and “beauty for ashes” had just been prayed over me and she said, “Shelley, I just sense the Lord wanting to give you beauty for ashes.” She lifted my head and chin up and pointed it towards the ceiling and said, “The Lord sees the beauty in you and He wants you to stand so He can gaze at your beauty just as Esther stood before the king in her beauty.” I held my chin upward towards the heavens and I felt so much love from the Father in that moment. It was crazy!

 Then another random thing: a man who I don’t know came up to me and said, I just want to tell you that your openness and transparency is beautiful. You have a way of comforting people because of that transparency. It really is a weapon for good. Crazy! This man has only seen me; he has no idea that for years I have been told that my authenticity is a character trait from God to be used for His Kingdom. It was such a beautiful affirmation that the Father sees and knows me and is giving me a word of encouragement in who I am in Him.

 I believe tonight was a gift from the Father. He wanted me to know His lavish love for me and His ability to know me and to know my heart. I know that as I continue in ministry, my goal is to show people that God desires to love them lavishly and by experiencing these supernatural things first hand, I know the beauty of the gifts that I bring to others by way of the Holy Spirit and how a word of knowledge can work to transform a life as the person being prayed over recognizes that the Creator of the Universe has a lavish love to extend.

Session 3. Kevin Dedmond. “Drinking and Leaking”

Kevin opened by saying that the church has lost perspective for healing. He reminded us that we are healing revivalists and to take claim of our inheritance. Kevin used to do a lot of street ministry with hitchhikers. He also used to work with street people and would hold beach barbeque baptisms. Drug addicts, prostitutes, and others would give testimonies and people would become “saved.” When we show the goodness and kindness of God, everyone can relate because they need Him.

 Ezekiel 47 prophesies of water coming out from the south side of the temple. The Levites worshipped God at the south side. Water (The Holy Spirit) comes out of worship, His presence, intimacy, and renewal. Evangelism starts in His presence. We are to be a renewal culture. People want a God encounter. We must be in that place where are living in His presence and living in renewal. What we drink in must leak out through His presence in own own lives. We better leak or we will drown. Renewal must translate into revival. At Pentecost, one minute they are in the room and the next minute they are in community. “It’s God’s will to kick the church out of the church.” Three thousand got saved because the church got out of the Ezekiel temple. Ezekiel 47:2. Water was flowing from the south side. We are the trees on the side of the bank. Water becomes fresh. There are large numbers of fish. Where the river or the Holy Spirit flows, everything will live.

 The river flowing out of us is the Holy Spirit and Joy. Joy is huge in releasing the kingdom! Good news of great joy..Why? Because people are getting saved and healed and that makes people happy. Luke 6:21, the word “blessed” should be “hugely happy”; Jesus didn’t use the word, “blessed” as we know it. He used “hugely happy” are those who hunger and thirst…the kingdom is now here and so those who hunger and thirst are to be “hugely happy” because they can and will be satisfied NOW. When the people are brought to the Kingdom, joy is the result. People taste and see that the Lord is good.

 Drinking and Leaking is not to happen at an event; it is to be a lifestyle. We are to be drunk on the “new wine” of the Holy Spirit. People are waiting for a God encounter and they are desperate for us to leak out onto them. We must remind people that God is in a good mood. He is joyful! We need to give them the good news of great joy. Where the river flows, there is healing and the goodness of God.

Session 2. Bill Johnson. My life as a gate.

Bill Johnson. Session 2. “The Kingdom of God”. Acts 2.

Today was amazing. I am not even sure where to begin. I wrote 12 pages of notes in my journal. There’s way too much to write! Let’s see. The morning began with Bill Johnson’s teaching. He said, “Evangelism in its purest form is worship.” (He also reminded us that we always become like the one we worship.) “Evangelism is right now; angels won’t do it. It must be done by those who have been redeemed who are able to carry the message.” Bill said that the picture of an authentic Christian life is a person on whom angels ascend and descend. The presence of God is on that person and the angels come and go assisting that believer in leading others into the Kingdom.  Jesus is still the door but our lives as yielded believers become a gate.

Bill taught out of Isaiah 60:18 wherein it states that our walls will be called salvation and our gates praise. We are to radiate the light of Jesus. We are not to be on the defense but on the offense against evil. We are to be a city on a hill. Genesis 28 speaks of angels ascending and descending; The Holy Spirit now tabernacles within us and we have been given the authority to usher in the kingdom, or God’s people through the gate of praise. That being said, there is an opening in heaven wherein the angels assist us in bringing forth God’s kingdom here on earth. Amazing. Jesus didn’t come to be the last Tabernacle, or dwelling place of the Holy Spirit; in essence, Jesus said, “Tag, you’re it.” Our lives as believers are that we should become the “gate” wherein people enter into the Kingdom because we have been in the Presence of the Lord.

Bill spoke of Acts 2 and how after Jesus’ resurrection, he spent 40 days with the disciples teaching about the kingdom of God. Between Jesus’ ascension and Pentecost were 10 days filled with nothing but waiting and seeking God’s face. There was no agenda, no list of programs or things to be accomplished. There was only a sense of anticipation and a submission for waiting for the promised Holy Spirit. I couldn’t help but wonder what would happen if we closed the church office and programs down for 10 days and spent those days in prayer and worship. Would we finally come together in one accord? Would there still be friction? Would we begin to see one another as brothers and sisters? Would we realize that our mission had been born out of our own desires instead of God’s? Would we find that we had been ministering out of our own pride and not God’s love? How might the Church as a whole look differently if we spent ten days with a closed office and an open sanctuary? Would we too, find his Presence of the Holy Spirit? I believe.

Supernatural Evangelism Conference

It’s Tuesday morning, my second day out here in Redding, California. I am attending a week-long conference on Supernatural Evangelism. There are 209 students here and 12 nations represented. I am looking forward to an amazing experience with Lord and to meeting some life-long friends in the ministry. Here’s some thoughts on the first session:

Last night, the worship was fantastic! I often complain that there is never enough music but we must have worshipped for an hour! It was beautiful to look around and see a twenty-five year old man worshipping next to a seventy-year old woman. They each had their own way of being in the Lord’s presence but it was beautiful all the same.

 Chris Overstreet spoke of the five things that Bethel Church views as their core values for evangelism. 1. Love. 2. Honor. 3. Presence of the Lord. 4. Power. 5. Joy.

 If I had to sum up what I heard, I would say that our hope as Christians should be that we “leak” the Holy Spirit and the Presence of the Lord wherever we go. Instead of waiting for a Sunday morning or particular ministry event, we should “leak” God’s presence in our daily activities such as at restaurants and the grocery store. Chris gave many examples of God encounters in his daily routine. He told of how he encountered a pot-smoking group of young adults who all gave their lives to Jesus; one young man is now playing drums on a worship team. Another testimony is how God directed him at the airport to a woman who had plans to commit suicide that very evening. God disrupted her plans and made his home in her heart. Amazing! 

 Of all the core values, LOVE spoke out to me the most. Chris made the point that sometimes people can become prideful and it becomes their ministry instead of the Lord’s. We must minister out of love; no other motive will do. “Jesus loves you and I love you. And, Jesus wants to show you His magnificent love for you. Do you mind if I pray for you?”

 Chris made the point that signs and wonders point us to the authentic God. For believers, they reveal His heart for a desire for a deeper relationship and for “pre-Christians” it points people into a relationship with Him.

 Chris shared many testimonies of people who had received a God encounter. Those testimonies boosted our faith. It was amazing to hear how people’s lives were changed in a period of no more than an hour. I was encouraged to pay more attention to those around me and to seek after the Lord’s presence so that I too may “leak” the presence of the Lord wherever I go.

Child-like Contentment

As laughter from the bathtub resonates down the hallway and as I wipe mandarin orange juice, Cheetos, ketchup, and the remains of a hotdog dinner from the kitchen table, I am in awe of the child-like contentment that radiates from within. While this year was the year my husband and two boys traded our four bedroom suburban home for a modest apartment, and though by the world’s standards much has been taken because of this economic crisis, I wouldn’t trade it back for the lottery because the irony is that I feel from within the greatest sense of peace and security than I have ever known.

It’s a funny thing. I’ve learned as the material has been taken away, to greater trust in the plans of the Lord. Since the band-aid of shopping for an outfit to make me feel pretty and  the band-aid of  escaping into night-time episodes have been stripped from my soul, I have dealt with a reality of wounds; Jesus  has healed them. Never have I been so whole nor have I ever been this content with so little.

I’ve found truth in God’s Word, “Draw near to Me and I will draw near to you” (James 4:8). Through desperation, I have sought the Lord relentlessly, the way a mother seeks after a lost child. I have put Him first on my agenda and have watched in awe as He has taken care of my every need. The harder I press into God, the harder He seems to press into me. The more I seek Him, the less I need, only more of Him.

As the sound of the boys’ laughter and splashing echoes from the hallway into the kitchen, I smile knowing that just as they have found contentment and joy in something so simple as a hotdog dinner and bath-time, I too, have found a child-like contentment in a modest means and the knowledge that whether in plenty or in want by the world’s standards, my inner peace and security lie in direct correlation to the God who comes nearer as I come to Him.