This week I am really messed up with this verse. In the Lord’s prayer, Jesus taught us to pray that his will be done on earth as it is with heaven. It is our prayer that heaven, the realities of heaven invade earth; the supra-natural needs to become the natural.

I was reading a praise report from a dear brother who is an interant preacher/prophet. In this last letter he told about a recent meeting with feathers began to fall. Feathers? Yes feathers, feathers from angels began to fall to remind us of there presense and watch over us. What a beautiful sign from God. What a beautiful reality of heaven on earth, God’s angels are watching over us. Praise Jesus! This is good stuff. In another praise report from another brother in Christ, he talked about a man they prayed for last week which doing prophetic evangelism and the man was healed instantly. AMEN! This is what I see Paul talking about in Colossians 1:3, the realities of heaven.

Friends, in heaven there is no pain, there is no suffering, there is unlimited joy, there are the riches of heaven, and most importantly there is Christ. We can be in his presence 24/7 for all eternity. Don’t lie to me and say you don’t crave a bit of that now. Come on, fess up! I sure do. I cry out for, thirst after, drool for a chance to get in the presence of God. We have been raised to a new life, a life where we are whacked out in the presence of God. Come on Jesus! A life where the only way to cure our thirst is to drink of the new wine of Christ (his blood) and eat of the bread of life. We are called to a new life where his ruach (breathe) is breathed into our dry bones and brings life to us.

This is the reality I want, the new life in Christ. I want his presence all the time. I want to feel it be as close to me as the clothes I wear, actually closer, deep within me. Let the ruach of Christ be breathed into you, be controlled by his breathe not your old nature. Come on! Let’s begin praying for his outpouring, let’s begin praying for signs and wonders, healings, miracles, the realities of heaven seen on earth.

If we want to see all the world saved, or on a smaller scale your friends and neighbourhood, then get in the presence of Christ, let him breathe into you and then breathe out to others. Only when people truly expereince the presence of God will they know the reality of the new life, will they know the reality of heaven, will they crave the living water of Christ. When the living water is poured into them, then it will overflow and get others around them wet. Pour it out Lord!

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You can argue my theology but not my miracle! For centuries men and women have debated over the truths of scripture. Denominations have been created, churches have been divided, some have fallen from faith. We seek to obtain the knowledge of God, we create structures to study him, we have written so many books they would likely wrap around the earth a few times. We have tried to formulate, structure, and create a flow chart of how miracles work, what they are, how they happen.

There are those who say that miracles has ceased, that they stopped after the canon of the Bible was completed. Possibly even before then. They seek to tell us the signs and wonders of God that happen today do not exist. Non-christians will argue the existence of God. All the while we try to argue them into the kingdom. The argument is hot, it’s ongoing, and it may hurt. But what we can not be argued is our experience of God’s miracles.

Years ago I was trained to believe that miracles did not happen today, I was adamant that this was so. I would scoff, laugh, call out people who made the outrageous claim that through prayer they saw people healed, or that gold dust appeared, or people spoke in foreign tongues. In my understanding of theology there was no way this could happen today. Then something broke through. I was healed. I had suffered with pain in my lower back for a few years. I often wanted to get resolution to it, but was unable to afford the bills to get it dealt with. Then one evening I was invited to do some work at a John Arnott talk. I accepted figuring it would be a good laugh at the expense of many doing what I considered foolish and unwise. When prayer time for healing came, John spoke of some with lower back pain. Thinking it was foolish I decided to follow along. He told us to rub our hands together and then touch the affected area of our back. What happened next none of my theology could explain. I felt a fire in my hands, and then a fire in my back as I touched the pain. I am pain free now, the problems corrected.

I could theologically argue, or so I thought, why this was not possible, why this did not and could not happen. But I could not argue with the lack of pain, the increased mobility in my back.

Once my eyes became open to this, to the understanding of God’s power at work, I began to seek it more. I have seen God heal people through my touch, I have seen God’s miracle of provision many times for myself and for others. I’ve yet to see dead raised, but someday why not that would be cool.

In John 14:12, Jesus says “The person who trusts me will not only do what I’m doing but even greater things, because I, on my way to the Father, am giving you the same work to do that I’ve been doing.” Peter and John in Acts 4:30 declared to believers “Stretch out your hands to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” James teaches “Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make them well.”

These are a few scriptures that discuss miracles, and there are so many more. Over 20% of the gospel is about the healing ministry of Jesus. Then he trained and sent the disciples. When the disciples took the gospel to the street not only preached words but showed in power. They healed, they performed signs, they had shown the crowds and individuals the power of God. People could debate with them scripture to prove or disprove what was happening, but they could not argue the miracles that happened in their presence.

Acts 2:1-21

To me this scripture represents the point perfectly. The disciples were there, Jesus has just been taken to heaven and then the Holy Spirit descended. Catch the miracles that happened, sounds of rushing wind, tongues of fire came down, people spoke in languages they did not know. The crowd watched, they laughed, they tried to disprove what was happening. Then Peter commentated on what was happening and why. Once everyone experienced the miracles they could not argue and scripture tells us thousands were added to the kingdom because of the signs and wonders.

When God’s grace is poured out on us, when it is shown to others it compels us to fall in love with God. It calls us to action. It calls us to his name and to pour out his love on others. It moves us beyond words and into the miraculous. In pouring out his love, his power, we are giving others the opportunity to see the face of God. We are giving them a chance to encounter his love for them. When we stretch out our hands in faith as small as a mustard seed we will see Jesus touch others. Heaven will be represented on earth as we honor God in his calling on us. When we pour out as he overflows into us, when we rise up to be his ambassadors to this world; then the world will not be able to continue to argue the theology, they will be able to know and experience the love God has for them. They will met with and know the presence of Jesus. They will know God.

We need to see, recognize and honor what  God is doing in our local area through missionaries. God is moving in our midst through people we would not normally consider “pastors”.  I think that is the key there, we think that the leaders of our church, those doing the work of the kingdom are pastors and churches only. But there is a group that we often do not recognize in our midst. The local missionaries. Those that come and start campus ministries, start home bible studies, plant churches, dig into communities to see them impacted for the gospel.

I say this partly out of my frustration in how I seek to impact a place. God lead me to my home a few years ago. He talked to me about church planting, and the idea of us being missionaries. But also for others, we need to raise awareness of those in our area that are seeking to expand the kingdom outside the walls o the church on the streets.

It would be wonderful if churches would take time to learn of the known workers, uphold them in prayer, support them as they need. Churches should join in with, come along side, what is happening all around us and see where Jesus is leading in the margins of our cities.  God is stiring things up all around us through the local missionaries. Normal people like you and me, who love God and are willing to go to the extremes of life to live out the presence of Jesus to the world/community/neighbourhood they are in.

Pray for God to raise more people up to come to your locale, and proclaim boldly through their lives to others. Pray for those that have made sacrifice to be missionaries in your area already. Bless them.

I want to encourage you all in God’s love. I want you to know for yourself how much God loves you through my story. I see many things so far. One my dependancy on myself for provision. I always assumed it has been me who provides. But that was my pride telling me so. I would be a fool to say I do not worry, I go through fits of confusion where I worry about simple things like can I afford milk or coffee, or worry about next month how will I feed my family, how will my bills get paid. But then God gently reminds me of his love through tangible things. Example. We’ve been given a car, seems weird to have something that brings more bills but it’s covered. The car being small I wanted to have a rack to take my bikes to the trails so I could ride, well I prayed for one. I figured why not. Guess what, I’ve got one now. I also complained this car had a cassette deck and I wanted to hook my ipod into is. Well God moved in a friend one day who then brought me a cassette tape thing to enable me to play my ipod (now I can cruise with worship tunes!). These are a couple things, there are more.We do have our needs and pray for them daily knowing we have a God who told us not to worry, and to bring everything to him in prayer.

God wants to pour into us his love, it may look different for others. For my family, currently is provision. FOr others it could be healing, it could be miracles of other kinds. But the bottom line in our God, our saviour, our king, our daddy loves us beyond our imagination and wants us to know this. His scripture is story after story of his love, there are lives around us that are story after story of his love. Why does he do this. Simply to drawn us closer to him, so we can meet with him face to face and know Him as a loving father wants to know his childred. Jesus calls us friends. He desires to know us as such. That’s why.

Where do i go from here, I do not know. But I do know God is stirring vision, and in giving me more free time I am able to develop a better relationship with my son, and I am able to speak life into people who need hope, I have been able to share Christ with some. As God pours his miracle love into us it has enabled us to pour out from the overflow and watch people fall in love with Christ.

We look to man for glory, we look to man for approval, we look to man as a scale to see if we are balanced in life. We do all of this because we fear man, we fear his/her thoughts and opinions of us, we sucombb to peer pressures, we try not to rock the boat so we don’t appear foolish. The problem is this as Jesus says in John 5:44 “How can you believe since you accept glory from one another but do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?”

The fear of man places a block in our way from accepting the glory that comes from God. We spend our time placing our focus where it should not be. Our eyes need to be on Christ who died for us, and resting in his presence we learn how much he bring glory on our behalf to the Father. If we place our eyes on man, then we fail to see Christ’s glory, we fail to hear his approval, we fail to live out his principals in this world.

Paul said he wanted to be a fool for Christ. John was so unhinged for God he ate locus and stomped around in a camel hair robe. There are so many examples in scripture of men and women who looked past, who rebuked the fear of man in them for the sake of the gospel. We need to do the same, we need to see where it has woven itself into us, and cast it out. The spirit of the fear of man can not coexist with the gospel within us. Our bodies are the temple of God, his spirit lives in us. As Christ stormed the temple and overturned tables of the evil doers who sought to turn God’s temple into a carnival, let Christ do the same in your temple. Give him permission to overturn the tables of the spirit of the fear of man, to cast it out.

Jesus told us we would do greater things then he did when we rely on the Holy Spirit. Let’s seek to do these greater things, place your eyes on Christ not on man and watch the power of the gospel be lived out around you.

Once a boy managed to pass a rabbi’s testing, he was offered a role as a disciple and told “|come and follow me.” A rabbi would then take the boy from his life he knew, his family, his friends, and adopt him into a rigorous life of discipline and disicpleship. If a boy was passed over, he was sent to the family business, a life of fishing, carpentry, and other such tasks to live a “common” life.

But then Jesus shows up. The rabbi. No one has seen a rabbi quite like Jesus before. He goes to the commoners of the society and without thought tells a group of rag tag men, “come follow me.” There is no rigorous training, there is no scripture memory, there is no screening process. The process that Jesus took was he knew the hearts of the men and women. They didn’t need to prove themselves worthy, in Jesus eyes they already were worthy. Jesus took the rejects of the other rabbis and believed in them.

Jesus looks at us and says, “come follow me.” He has no expectations of what we must do to obtain his favour. He doesn’t ask us to try to please him, simply come follow him. Jesus already believes in us. Jesus has faith in us.

Last night God spoke with boldness.

Last night God’s name was lifted up, and heaven came to earth.

Last night was beautiful.

Last night was a blessing and sending service. The church I’ve been planting, Manna, had a great opportunity to bless our parent church, The Agora. We held a combined service where we got to share with the Agora who Manna is, and what God has called us to. We had the privledge of sharing us with them, more so of sharing what God has laid on our hearts with them. I was touched by the prayers of blessing and sending. Also one of my mentors/denominations regional director was present and annoited us with oil. I’m yet to profoundly understand the significance of what God did in the moment. But I do know for the four of us representing Manna leadership it was a huge impact.

Last night we came to met with God, and he poured out his love on us.

Last night I preached the sermon I wrote previously that God laid on me and got to see it’s words impact and speak into peoples spirits.

Last night.
Thanks God!

As I reflect on this, I see the same is true for our faith. We can spend hours, days, weeks along trying to be the best Christ follower possible, dreaming huge dreams of all we can be in Christ. But we only get so far. We need jam sessions with other Christians. This is where we grow in Christ truly, this is where we challenge and are challenged. I am convinced all the New Testament is written to communities, not simply individuals. Sure it’s good for individual application, but it reaches it’s full life when applied to community. Much like I reach my potential as a guitar play when in a band, the same is true as a Christian.

If my expereince is merely that of the life of an apostle (the office I perceive to occupy) then my faith is very one sided. My understanding of scripture lacks depth, my journey is stunted. But if I live my faith out in community, with evangelists, prophets, pastors, and teachers then the puzzle fits together and we learn from each other and grow to depth we can not fathom to reach alone.

We are saved individually but saved into community, the bride of Christ, the church. This is where we are to be, not to be alone, not to be on a mountain top somewhere but to be centered, to be surrounded, in community where we can share life and the love of Jesus together.

I don’t think a  statement could be truer. Church is messy. It’s messy because it’s made up of us, christians, saved by God’s grace, yet still imperfect. If life outside the building we call church is messy then why should we not expect inside to be messy as well. I loved Messy Spirituality by Mike Yaconeli, which I read a few years ago. In this fine book Mike talked about how he thought his church was the messiest in north america. He made this assumption because people shouted out, there were people with terrets, many who didn’t believe in Jesus but came for the love, and so on. This is church, to me, where people can be real and not put on a shiny face, where a screamed out “f#$#$#” is not offensive in the normal way but seen as understanding someone is struggling.

My church is messy, how can it not be, with me as pastor. I’m certainly not perfect, I forget to write teachings on time, I say the wrong words, I argue with my family, I’m selfish at times, the list could go on. So if I’m this way then why should I not expect my church to be this way. We need to face the reality that we are all fallen, we all are imperfect so why should we be surprised when this imperfection shows up in church.