A RECAP OF ENGLAND

Greetings! So it has been about a month now since I was sitting on the plane bound for the United Kingdom. As I reflected on this thought, I realized that many of you have not heard the stories of all that I saw God do while out there. For this reason I felt that for my entry today I should share. While I understand that to some this may be nothing more than boring chatter, I trust that for others it will be a moment of encouragement as you also begin to feel faith rising in you.

The journey in many ways does not start on January 7, 2016, but rather months before in June, 2015. It was here that I felt myself putting faith into action as I told my contact I would come to his city. I had no idea how it would all happen, how the money would come about, or even what God would have me to share. I only knew I was to go. As the months turned into weeks and days, God gave me ideas for fundraising and quickly brought in beyond that amount needed. But God also began to plant in me His words that I would share with the people. He began to give me an urge to speak boldly in faith, even though I was no one special, and to usher in to this church God's wave of urgency.

The plan was to speak in the church's Bible School on the topic of Spiritual Leadership, but also to share in two evening services and a Sunday service as God was leading. Quite honestly, my first sermon was written in the Dublin airport as I waited on my transfer. But from the moment the pen touched the paper, I felt God stirring my faith with an expectancy. God was about to do something big. He didn't really need me, but was allowing me to be the tool that He would minister through. As the evening service began, God moved on the people and brought an awakening to spirits. (More details on this message can be found in the prior blog).

The next day began with teaching in the Bible School, and ended with a late night at McDonalds. But the events that transpired in between still have me in awe of who God is. When I was about 10 or 11 years old, my local pastor asked me to pray over all the men in the church, laying hands on and staying till I felt a release. I had felt God's power then. But as I shared once more in the evening service now, I felt God's power once again. With a simple message concerning taking God at His word, believing the book of Acts to be true, and testing if in fact God was the same yesterday, today, and forever (Heb 13:8), I invited people to the front for prayer.

As God's tool once more, I felt His Spirit again like I did as that young child. I laid hands on people and God's words came through me. Prophecy was coming forth, people I barely touched were falling out, and healings were being done. When the presence began to subside I was in tears, thankful to have been a tool of God. There was no doubt that God was doing something for these people, but the fact that God was doing something in me was just as important.

The final service was had on that Sunday morning, where again God showed up. It wasn't in the form of healings and such, but in the form of rallying the troops. The message God had put on my heart was Joshua 3:5, to be consecrated. Before the army of God under Joshua's command was able to cross into the Promise Land and take possession of what was theirs, God needed them sanctified. It is no different today. God is moving this year, and He is moving us into what He has for us. But if we are not consecrated, we will not enter. In this grand chapel where His Spirit was moving, God was consecrating His people, and I was a tool used by Him to spur His people.

I came back from England a different man. I came back able to hear His voice in a new way, to move out in a boldness that wasn't fully developed prior, and hungry for what He has. A few days back, as we were having our family Bible time, my wife felt I was to pray over all the kids. It was as if the Spirit was standing next to me. I was seeing visions, hearing words of warning and prophecy, and breaking the grips that the devil wanted on our kids. This time, though, while still allowing myself to be the tool, I knew that God could and was doing it. I knew His power.

Before Jesus ascended into heaven in Acts 1, He spoke about how the Spirit would come upon the disciples in power, enabling them to be His witnesses. Not before this trip have I ever felt this degree of His Spirit and power. But who I am that I should experience it and not you. So it is to you that I want to offer this encouragement - that you too shall receive power after the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you too shall be His witnesses (Acts 1:8). Do not discredit yourself, for God has plans to use you in a big way.

AWAKE!

"Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of my God."
Revelation 3:2

In the first few days of 2016 I had an opportunity to travel to Wolverhampton, England, where I was asked to teach in a Bible School and preach in evening services for a pastor friend of mine. As I prepared my messages, I specifically heard God telling me that it was time to call the people to AWAKE! God took me to Revelation 3:1-6, where the letter written by John to the church of Sardis is found. As I read this passage again, with eyes as if reading for the first time, I began to see clearly what God was saying to the church I would be sharing with, but also to church as a whole.

It is recorded that in the history of the city of Sardis, the city had been captured twice before while sleeping, both in 549BC and 219BC. Was it coincidence that now, years later, they were being called out for sleeping again? Truth be told, the church at Sardis was going through the motions. From the beginning of John's writing we read that the church had a reputation for being alive, but in reality was dead. The church had at one time had a fire, but now they were on cruise control and simply leaving an image that they were still following hard after God. The truth was that they had allowed too much of the world to come in and now they were living off of the reputation of the good old days. If we were to be honest, how many of us does that define today. How many of us were at one time sold out for God, but along the way began inviting sin in? To the outsiders we may still appear to be godly, but to God we are seen as dead.

To this church, and to people who fall into the same definition today, the answer was given...WAKE UP! I love how in the New International Version there is an exclamation mark. This isn’t a nice suggestion, it is a urgency. WAKE UP! Stop being dead. Stop living off the 'used to be' reputation of the past. WAKE UP! Give what is being said here real attention. God is telling people that He sees what no one else sees. He sees that the church is skating by. He sees the inside areas and they are death. WAKE UP! To this urgent plea God then adds to strengthen what remains and is about to die. It is time to restructure your life before it is too late. It is time to refill what has been lacking. It is time to retake action and be that positive reputation again that you used to be. Shake off the dust that has sat on you and remember what God has given you. Come out from the cloudy fog that rested on you and now begin to obey God's Word, and repent from the allowance of things you have let come into your life. If you chose not to, you will be robbed from. So that this does not happen, God is saying to re-engage in the intimacy you once had with Him.

When are we going to stop hitting the snooze button on our alarm clocks? I am guilty of this. I know my alarm will go off at 5:00am every weekday. I set it at that time so that I can allow myself time for devotions in the morning before the rest of the house is up and moving. But there have been many days when 5:00am comes sooner than I want it to. As a result, I hit the snooze button. then I hit it again, then again, then again. Before I know it, I have hit snooze so many times that now I am late to get in the shower, let alone spend time in devotions. But with every press of the snooze physically I am pushing the snooze spiritually. God is calling me to WAKE UP, and I am choosing to remain under the covers.

One of the greatest pictures God gave me in illustrating this point was that of a defibrillator. Having being trained in using one, I know that you must clear the people away from the action before allowing the machine to charge the patient. But how many of us could use a good dose of Godly defibrillating? Just like the church of Sardis, we are on the verge of death in the path that we are going. Just like the church, we have a reputation of godly living, but we are on the verge of death because of our sins.

If you, like me, are serious about coming back to life, then make this your prayer: God, I pray, place the paddles of Your defibrillator on my heart and AWAKEN me. Bring me back from the death of my sin. God I cry out to You and ask that You would forgive me of my sin. God I make the choice to obey You. I chose to remember what I have received and heard from You. AWAKEN ME God, before it is too late.