The Glorious Gospel Of Grace....The Too Good To Be True News!!!

"The Reformation was a time when men went blind, staggering drunk because they had discovered, in the dusty basement of late medievalism, a whole cellarful of fifteen-hundred-year-old, two-hundred-proof grace---of bottle after bottle of pure distillate of scripture, one sip of which would convince anyone that God saves us single-handedly. The word of the gospel--after all those centuries of trying to lift yourself into heaven by worrying about the perfection of your bootstraps--suddenly turned out to be a flat announcement that the saved were home before they started... Grace has to be drunk straight: no water, no ice, and certainly no ginger ale; neither goodness, nor badness, nor the flowers that bloom in the spring of super spirituality could be allowed to enter into the case."
-Robert Capon

Alegria

Today was the first day of class for Harvest School 15. We have almost 300 students here (including staff) who all love the presence so you can imagine what kind of a morning it turned into.

During Rolland's session he said, "The Holy Spirit is just in a better mood then you are". As we started to chew on what had just come out of his mouth we started laughing uncontrollably. When we would finally stop laughing, the thought of what he said would come crashing into our minds and we would begin to laugh uncontrollably again. This happened over and over. We would become lost in laughter and forget about what mood we were in previously because we had become undone with the mood of the Holy Spirit, Joy.

Why do we waste one second not walking in Joy? What good reason do we have to not be Joyful? Do circumstances determine our Joy or the Holy Spirit?

We saw a feature on CNN about 6 months ago about a nun that had just turned 113 years old and would visit old folks homes to do the polka with them. CNN asked her, "what is the secret to your longevity?" She looked at the camera, smiled and replied, "joy!". Imagine how many health problems are directly related to a lack of joy. Joy is serious business!

Romans 14:17 says, "For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost". If we are not walking in Joy then we are missing out on 1/3 of the kingdom! If Joy is part of the kingdom then I'm pretty sure its an important thing. Step into this joy by faith. Take hold of it and never go back. No longer will we be ruled by our wallowing and depression, they no longer have a room in our house.

The free gift of eternal life should be more than enough to overwhelm us with joy every morning we awake!

Mo·zam·bique [moh-zam-beek, -zuhm-]

Hey everyone! Sorry for the lack of posts lately but we have been en route to Africa and have now been here for 3 days. The internet is as usual, a tad faster than a turtle, but we are blessed just to have a connection. We are busy setting up for the school and are super excited for Harvest School 15 and all that God has in store. Please be praying for the staff as they prepare for a lot of students to come and also for the school as we believe that God is taking it to a new place that it has never gone before.

We have been reading a really awesome book called, "In His Presence" by E.W Kenyon. God has really been rocking us with it. We want to leave you with a quote from the book to chew and meditate on.

"If we are new creations created in Christ Jesus, let us ask the Father to set the limits of that new creation, instead of allowing theologians to do it. Faith will lead you where reason cannot walk."

Family Ties

Throughout our travels and ministry times we have come into contact with some amazing brothers and sisters in the Lord who are literally changing the world. Ever so often we are going to be taking time to quickly post about them and give people a heads up on what is going on with amazing ministries all over the world that we have had the privilege of connecting with.

In this post is a video of a ministry called TRIN (Touch, Reach and Impact the Nations) whose founder and director is a man named Mattheus Van Der Steen. Mattheus and his wife are literally Touching, Reaching and Impacting the Nations causing a changing and a shifting world wide. They are dedicated to raising up revivalists globally and seeing generations of sons and daughters walk in their dreams and destiny's. You can read more about Mattheus and TRIN at www.mattheusvandersteen.com

I Have A Dream, Do You?

I think that perhaps the most important 4 words spoken by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr out of all of the many speeches he delivered was, "I Have A Dream". What would have happened if Dr. King did not dream? The same thing that will happen to us if we do not dream, nothing. Nothing will happen if we do not dare to dream. Where are the dreamers of our day that will dream the dreams that are not corrupted by impossibilities and fear?

"If your memories are greater than your dreams, your already dying" -Mattheus Van Der Steen

It Gets Louder when You Listen

The other night Jes and I were laying in bed, with the windows open, falling asleep. The crickets outside were making their usual noise as the sounds of night filled our room. At that moment the Holy Spirit breathed through my lips and spoke something so profound that I would remain awake for the next 2 hours. He said, "It gets louder when you listen". It hit me like a ton of bricks because in that moment I no longer could just hear the crickets but as I listened it became a symphony of night that just had the volume turned up.

I immediately understood what God was saying to us as my heart bounced between joy and conviction. The difference between hearing and listening is when you are listening to something then you give your attention to that something. Its not the volume that God speaks to us in that determines how loud His voice is to us, its the attention that we give to His Voice. Yes, God speaks with a still small voice but if you would Listen to that still small voice then it wouldn't sound so small anymore. There is more power in a whisper to someone who knows how to listen then a shout in the ear of someone who only knows how to hear.

If listening to God's voice increases the volume of His voice in our ears, then it will also have the same affect for any other voices in our lives. Many of us wonder why the enemy's voice seems louder than Gods voice and struggle to wrap our heads around it. We must not forget that both God and the devil are speaking but we are given the freedom to choose who we listen to. If we give attention to the enemy and his lies then they too will increase in volume.

Our passivity to listening to the voice of the Lord has rendered His voice a background noise. If we would examine our prayer lives, how much of it is given to listening? How much of our attention is given to the Voice of the Lord? Whatever we give our attention to is what we truly value and what we truly value we give pre-eminence in our lives. Prayer is not only talking to God but also listening to God. Any healthy relationship is made up of good listeners. I believe that our prayer lives would be completely revolutionized if we would start to take time to listen.

"It get's louder when you listen"



Understand [this], my beloved brethren. Let every man be quick
to hear [a ready listener], slow to speak, slow to take offense and to get angry. (James 1:19 AMP)


Post this at all the intersections, dear friends: Lead with your ears, follow up with your tongue, and let anger straggle along in the rear. (James 1:19 MSG)

Never Ending Joy

"Christians ought to be celebrating constantly.
We ought to be pre-occupied with parties, banquets, feasts, and merriment. We ought to give ourselves over to veritable orgies of joy because we have been liberated from the fear of life and the fear of death. We ought to attract people to the church quite literally by the fun there is in being a Christian."

-Robert Hotchkins