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

Stewarding the Presence

Just a couple weeks ago we were in a worship session that was so sweet and intoxicating. A student from the school was leading worship and God began urging me to go to the front and release a word over the school. I stepped up to the front and was faced with one of the biggest responsibilities of someone in my position at that exact time. In that moment God told me to not just release the word but to "Steward His Presence". I can hear Gods voice, thats not what He was teaching me. He was teaching me to be a steward of his presence and to release that word in the midst of what He was doing, increasing the flow of what He was doing and not taking away.

stew·ard·ship

  [stoo-erd-ship,styoo-]

noun

the responsible overseeingand protection of somethingconsidered worth caring forand preserving.

We have been given the responsibility to oversee and protect the presence of God as stewards of God. To not hold the reigns but to oversee and protect the presence as He runs where ever He wants to run.

As the body of Christ, as His Church, as Gods own people we must learn that leading is stewarding. We have gotten so used to "the bit in the horses mouth approach", pulling and directing where we want our services, our flock our theology and our ministries to go. This approach has rendered God a visitor to our house instead of letting Him make our house His home. What we really need to ask ourselves is, have we placed higher value on our programs, timelines, idea's and the religious way of doing things, that God's presence now requires an invitation? Have we become stewards to our churches and ministries but not to the Presence?

Father I pray that we would all see that your presence is worth caring for and preserving. Teach us how to oversee and protect that Presence as stewarding Sons and Daughters.

"We must know that we have been created for greater things, not just to be a number in the world, not just to go for diplomas and degrees, this work and that work. We have been created in order to love and to be loved"
-Mother Teresa

Worship in the Son

We were worshiping in the kitchen last week on our morning off when we noticed that we had a little visiter that wanted to join us. Actually, as you can see in the video he had already joined us. Thank You daddy for the children.

Abba's Love

Jesus refered to God in such a revolutionary way that it would forever change not only how we approach Him but also how we relate to Him.  

With one word the religious leaders of the time were sent into a tailspin of religious furry, outraged at the idea of God being our Abba. In that moment, with one word, Jesus not only revealed who God is to Him but also who who God is to us, our Father.  We are no longer slaves under the law but Sons under grace.

The idea of relating to God as a Father has become not just a stumbling block for religious pharisee's but also for those who through the events of life have remained in an orphan mentality.  Every human being is born into the world with parents but many never walk or live as sons and daughters because their parents never knew what it meant to be fathers and mothers.  Bad experiences create bad memories which become the basis on which we then define what a father is or is not in our lives. As a result of this our view of God as a Father becomes a negative and not a positive and thus true sonship is never walked out.

One of the main roles and responsibilities of a Father is that a father defines with His words who His children are and with that, who He is. How does one deal with an established false identity of God, who is a good, true Father, when all of their experiences of fathers in their lives have been negative?
Firstly we must ask Holy Spirit to come and heal our hearts of all of the wounds that we have and establish a ground of forgiveness towards our fathers and mothers as well as ourselves.
Secondly we must fill our hearts with the truth of who and what a true Father is.
And thirdly, allow our heavenly Father to properly define us, His children. Having a correct understanding of what a Father is, and what our heavenly Father is, releases us to receive from Him and identify with Him.

Each of us are Abba's child. We are loved, perfect and beautiful in His eyes. He not only loves us but enjoys us and is delighted to call us Sons and Daughters.

He delights to call us Abba's child.