In the coming season of authority we must keep our soul clean. Based on the Hebrew calendar, this coming Jewish new year (September 8, 2010) marks the year of the Seer. So the question is how do we prepare, experience, and live in this season of history?

Experience: The truth is that God is wildly involved in our lives and speaking in unprecedented ways. We must choose now how we will engage our supernatural God. It’s never been enough for Christians to live vicariously through Paul, Peter, and other heroes of our faith. Imagine for a minute a father leaving the family business to his child. The father would raise the child by teaching with words, showing in action, and training by giving tasks. How would the father feel if his child just re-lived stories about the good ol’ days when dad was around, but never actually did the work he prepared for them to do? By revelation of Holy Spirit Peter quotes the Prophet Joel saying,

‘In the last days, God says, 
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
   Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
      your young men will see visions,
      your old men will dream dreams.
 ¹⁸Even on my servants, both men and women,
      I will pour out my Spirit in those days,
      and they will prophesy.
 ¹⁹I will show wonders in the heaven above
      and signs on the earth below,
      blood and fire and billows of smoke.
 ²⁰The sun will be turned to darkness
      and the moon to blood
      before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.
 ²¹And everyone who calls
      on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Peter is quoting the Prophet Joel to a mystified group of Jews who just witnessed what we call Pentecost. Peter explains this outpouring of the Holy Spirit is a sign of “last days.” If the beginning of the last days started two thousand years ago, how much more applicable is this to us today? This prophetic declaration isn’t just fodder for an excellent theological debate, its real! We are living at the end of what Joel and Peter described as “last days.”  I used to read scripture like this and brush it off saying, “Whoa, psychedelic passage I can’t really understand without more teaching.”  But if you open your heart God is saying  through Joel, “My bride, you will experience a great acceleration in your ability to hear my heart. I will open the flood gates unlike any other time in history to speak with you. You will speak my words (prophesy), and just so people don’t think you’re crazy I will be faithful to perform miraculous signs and wonders to verify that I’ve sent you. All of this will be for the great harvest of people I refuse to leave behind.” We must open our hearts and minds to experience all that our forefathers experienced. It’s not enough to talk about their stories, we must enter into this full-bodied supernatural faith in Christ Jesus (Eph 1:17-21 & Col 1:9-14).

Let’s play a little “what if” game for a few minutes. I read a great article last night, and honestly it back doored me a bit. It’s funny I use the “back door” reference here, because I’ve noticed I always get some good stuff from God when this happens. Anyway, here’s the big ”what if” question.

What if… (when we read the Bible) we stopped asking, “What does this mean” and ask “How can I obey.”

On the outside this question isn’t really striking, but if you hash it out a little it’s pretty profound. Let’s grab an example:  Proverbs 29:7 says,
“The righteous care about justice for the poor, but the wicked have no such concern.” What did this scripture mean to people in the time it was spoken? Well, that sounds like a silly question to ask. Thinking about how the people lived during the time this scripture was recorded may lead to some cool revelation, but it’s just the wrong question to ask!

I believe Christians (myself included) spend too much time thinking about what a certain scripture means and not enough time obeying what we read. If our heart’s desire is to see “the Kingdom come and his will be done, on earth as it is in heaven,” we must obey. Obedience is about positioning. When we obey, we’re positioning  ourselves through partnership with Holy Spirit to receive supernatural power to accomplish the task at hand.

What’s the cost?
Obedience can be unnerving. Praying for the sick to be healed, sharing the Kingdom with strangers, giving a prophetic word, or just really caring for someone makes me nervious. The cost seems high, but I know reward is eternal. Still a little voice in my mind says, “I’m affraid.”, ”Where do I start?”, “Can I create a ministry out of this?”, “Will I be recognized by others for this?” Seriously… when I search my heart for barriers, this is the stuff I find!?!

Examples
All the great people we read about in the bible have one major thing in common; they search for ways to obey God. I think the bible is mysterious to so many people because we can’t quite bring ourselves to obey it. I think about Abraham, Peter, King David, and the prophets and how they’re always laying it on the line for God not matter the cost. I always wonder what the months, days, and hours were like for these pioneers leading up to the ”big” events we read about. I’m sure there’s nothing strangely clever about the wisdom they received from God.

Weird is Good!
Imagine for a second the story of the battle of Jericho. If I was drawing up a plan to take out a city with a dangerous army, I would not march around their walls once a day for seven days blowing a horn, all capped with a loud William Wallace scream. As weird as this plan sounded, this was the one God chose to deliver to Joshua through an angel,the Commander of Heaven‘s Army. It’s these crack pot ideas that come to us and reveal the heart of God. We read about justice for the poor, world hunger, etc… and then comes, ”Go serve dinner at the Salvation Army soup kitchen.” What!?! What’s that all about? We say to ourselves, “I’m going to put an end world hunger by working the soup kitchen?” No, but you’re going to put an end to somebody’s hunger tonight. It’s in these ludicrous opportunities of obedience we can see what Jesus sees as important… and then do something about it.

How about you… do you search for ways to obey?

To many people the prophetic gifting is as foreign as reading Chinese. The purpose of the prophetic gift is to hear God, and to break off the limitations of man within the Church. The prophetic gifting can be misinterpreted as type of witchcraft, or set of New Age teachings that cause well-intentioned people to go the wrong direction. There are also many people who have been negatively impacted by the practice of the prophetic within their church experience, and so they choose not to listen or accept any kind of prophetic word.

I always thought it was interesting that when God created man, he also created the potential for sin by allowing the tree of the fruit of good and evil to be in the Garden of Eden. It’s like saying there’s a giant piece of chocolate cake sitting right in front of you, but you can’t eat it! I would say the prophetic creates a similar situation in that using it opens it up to a less than perfect communicator (a person has their own problems brought on by sin). Despite the pitfalls of the prophetic, I believe the benefits far outweigh the risks.

1 Corinthians 14:1-5 says, “¹Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy. ²For anyone who speaks in a tongue^[a] does not speak to men but to God. Indeed, no one understands him; he utters mysteries with his spirit.^{[b] 3}But everyone who prophesies speaks to men for their strengthening, encouragement and comfort. ⁴He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but he who prophesies edifies the church. ⁵I would like every one of you to speak in tongues,^[c] but I would rather have you prophesy. He who prophesies is greater than one who speaks in tongues,^[d] unless he interprets, so that the church may be edified.”

I’ve heard several pastor/teachers try to demystify the gift of prophecy as simply preaching from the pulpit. Teaching a relevant insight from Scripture is an aspect of prophecy, it’s just not the full form of it. It’s kind of like being pregnant isn’t the full form of pregnancy. Fortunately the Bible is chock full of great teaching on the gift of prophecy, and the administration of the gift within the corporate body (I’ll hit more on these scriptures in future posts).

Read On!

1 Corinthians 13 & 1 Corinthians 14

I believe I aptly fit my mom’s infamous quote, “Jack of all trades, and master of none.” Really I’ve been on a journey for quite some time. Like most, I was zealous in my faith starting at about 18. My plan was to attend some kind of Bible College because that “dang university” just didn’t offer the classes I was interested in… Jesus 101. About that time I got really involved in a campus ministry called Campus Crusade. This sort of filled my hunger for more, but I was captivated by “the call” to true ministry in a church. So I joined the staff of the little Presbyterian Church I’d volunteered at for two years.

All was fine and good until I noticed how poorly Christians treated Christians…in a church building no less (a term I coined as friendly fire). Now before I go off the edge, I have no real beefs with any expression of church… the last sentence was really the agitator that caused me to think twice about traditional church ministry. Many cool people sowed into me at the Presbyterian church, and I am grateful for their influence in my life. None the less, I couldn’t shake all the friendly fire I was receiving for reaching out to the low income families around our church. See, for years our little Presbyterian church attracted the community’s white collar folks, so investing in the at-risk teens could expose the other youth to destructive influences. It was about this time I really started to question the call to be Christ’s disciple (thank you Nooma DVDs).

After I stepped down as youth director to go back and finish college I decided the Lord wasn’t calling me as a reformer of the denominational. So with much prayer I left for greener pastures. This new church was/is a bustling cutting edge non-denominational church in our town… yet despite all the flair, my wife and I choose it because we were part of one of their small groups while I was working at the Presbyterian church (hold it… I had permission from the senior pastor:). Seriously though, we chose the hip church first and foremost because of the friendships we had. Our simple core desire for community slowly gave way to the exciting performance of weekly services. Since the leader of our small group was the youth pastor and a personal friend of mine, he quickly recruited me to hop on board as co-youth pastor. I kindly declined my friend’s offer while I spent time mourning my move… or something like that!?! Before I knew it I was off again in youth ministry, loving kids and sharing the gospel. I hoped with all hope I would get a paid position, but this growing church focused on new believers didn’t really collect enough money to create another position. We talked about several different and creative options for bank rolling this endeavor, but nothing really ever came to fruition.

Constantly scheming for finances started to wear on me, college was boring me again, and my job at the local Boys & Girls Club was stale. I just had this profound ache for Jesus. I needed the power of his presence again. In March of 2008 I picked up an old dusty copy of Redmoon Rising off my shelf for reading material on a plane ride. Bam! I was smitten again with the wild organic and passionate love of Jesus for the first time in God knew how long. By this time I was becoming leery of implementing the next best ministry plan discovered by Such-and-such church in Big City, USA. I wanted Jesus. I wanted to pray. I wanted to worship until my eyes popped out. The only problem was there we no 24-7 prayer rooms within 500 miles of my awesome little town.

So strapped with my first Holy Spirit vision, I set off to build a 24-7 prayer room. I really never had the gumption to lead this movement; I would have been delighted to just participate in “someone else’s thing.” News of this prayer extravaganza leaked out into the community and every charismatic Christian came running. It was dubbed the beginning of the ”new revival” that had long been prophesied in our region. There was a ton of excitement, but the little ex-Presbyterian man had no idea what was going on. I was still like, “Excuse me, did you just say prophecy?” Wild times for sure.

So here I am. I’m four years removed from full-time ministry in a denominational church. I’m 18 months removed from the “mini-revival”. I’m 8 months removed from meeting a crazy Mexican (love ya Gallo) from California with a vision for planting house churches, working as a cell phone salesman by day and house church planter, communications specialist for this site by night. As zany as this tale might be, I’m closer now to the heart of Jesus than ever before. Not only that, but now I’m accountable to this one guiding principle. Before I can wiggle my big toe, or bat my eyes in the morning, I need the Spirit to guide and direct as I lay hold of the treasures of his Kingdom. This is my story and I’m sticking to it!

In the coming season of authority we must keep our soul clean. Based on the Hebrew calendar, this coming Jewish new year (September 8, 2010) marks the year of the Seer. So the question is how do we prepare, experience, and live in this season of history?

Prepare:
We must keep our soul clean. Just like we read in Revelation, there are distinct times and seasons for angels of the Lord to blow trumpets and pour out bowls into the earth. Our God has an awesome ordering for everything he is doing. There is a great intention to detail in every generation. In the PR mag Jeph goes into greater detail about our spirit, soul and body. We receive revelation from Holy Spirit through our spirit. Now just because we picked up something in the spirit doesn’t mean we will interpret it correctly. Once the revelation comes into our spirit we begin to attach words to what we see. When we describe what we see, hear, touch, taste, and smell the revelation has entered our soul. Two key things happen in the soul: revelation takes form as we give it definition, and a grown builds in us to birth what is unseen into the seen world. We must keep our soul clean because the things we expose (and have exposed) ourselves to can distort how we interpret what we see in the Spirit. Nothing infuriates satan more than God’s children receiving insight to operate in their creative destinies. You better bet your bottom dollar satan will be tightening the screws, and increasing his attack. Keep a watchful eye on your soul, and resist the triggers that cause you to walk in carnality. Speaking through King Solomon, the Lord says it like this, “ Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.” And  James reminds us we have power when satan is pulling our strings, ”Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pVfUGQ7YFQ]

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Twenty-four years ago I got a call, “your sister needs us now.” My mom and I rushed to her home where my sister Kim lived and we came upon a scene I really wouldn’t want to see again. My sister Kim after months of morning sickness that was like having a constant flu was losing so much blood that it looked impossible for her to even still be pregnant. We called the doctor and he said that her body had naturally aborted the baby. We wrapped my sister up and took her to my house, laid her down and put her feet up. At this point  we refused to believe the baby was gone and my Mom and I went to war (which of course now we recognize was the leading of the Holy Spirit). We let the enemy know under no circumstances was he going to take what was ours and this baby was ours. Ashlee Marie Pottenger was our first miracle baby and I would say we disconnected any right the enemy thought he had to this precious little one.

Over the past few months since Ashlee shared her engagement to Scott O Malley we have been anticipating this last weekend. Ashlee was marrying the love of her life. We had wedding showers and all the things that go into making this the most special occasion for this young couple. Ashlee parent’s had been praying for the right mate since she was born and at the shower Scott’s mom shared that since he was five years old his father and her had been praying the same thing. I was amazed how blessed Ashlee was to have two strong Christian families uniting to witness the covenant these young people were making before God.

Well this weekend all the hard work Ashlee, Scott and their families put in paid off and it was a wedding to remember. The bride was stunning; the groom only had eyes for her. The attendants were joyous and the witnesses were in awe. Her Father gave her away and officiated the ceremony at the same time and everyone there knew of this couples commitment to Christ first. This wedding was Ashlee’s dream but not her purpose. Her purpose was to disconnect as Ashlee Pottenger and reconnect as Scott’s bride. When her parents gave Ashlee to Scott so she could as the word says “leave and cleave” it was with no reserve.

The day after the wedding Ashlee posted on Facebook, “Please refer to me as Mrs. O Malley from here on out.” Ashlee disconnected to her single past and connected to her future as Mrs. O Malley. Many marriages fail because the individuals can not let go of their past and go forward into their future. Ashlee’s eagerness to be Mrs. O Malley  makes my heart glad; because I know she is ready to connect with her future as the two shall be one.

Often when I worship I will hear the Lord speak. A couple weeks ago I heard, “disconnect to reconnect.” A couple days later I went onto the Prophetic River web site and listened to the live stream and a well known prophet was prophesying. He prophesied the exact same words the Lord had spoke to me during worship, “disconnect to reconnect.” Now the Lord had really caught my attention and I began to ask what does that mean, “disconnect to reconnect?”

As I was asking the Lord what to share I felt he wanted me to leave you with this challenge. Will you pray and ask if there is an area you need to disconnect to reconnect? He has assured me that this needs to be done on all kinds of levels and that it will be personal to each person. Ashlee and Scott’s future and how they face life as one, under a new covenant they made before Christ depended on them disconnecting from what had been the structure of their lives to a new connection as man and wife, pretty simple but really a new identity.

I believe for some the Lord is wanting a disconnect from your past to reconnect with your future, also the “battle” 24 years ago laid the foundation for a incredible future! What do you need to be contending for in your life? And your future!

God bless,

Sheryl